NEW  ATMOSPHERE 


BY 


GAIL    HAMILTON, 

AUTHOR   OF    "  COUNTRY    LIVING   AND    COUNTRY   THINKING  ' 

"GALA  DAYS,"  AND  "STUMBLING-BLOCKS." 


BOSTON: 
JAMES   R.   OSGOOD   AND   COMPANY, 

LATE  TICKNOR  &  FIELDS,  AND  FIELDS,  OSGOOD,  &  Co. 
1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864,  by 

TICKNOR     AND     FIELDS, 
!ji  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusettn 


EIGHTH      KDITJON. 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS: 

WELCH,   BIGKLOW,   AND  COMPANY, 

CAMBRIDGE. 


A    NEW   ATMOSPHERE. 


i. 


VITIATED  atmosphere  is  fatal  to 
healthy  development.  One  may  be  ever 
so  wise,  learned,  rich,  and  beautiful,  but 
if  the  air  he  breathes  is  saturated  with 
fever,  pestilence,  or  any  noxious  vapor,  nothing 
will  avail  him.  The  subtile  malaria  creeps  into 
his  inmost  frame,  looks  out  from  his  languid  eye, 
settles  in  his  sallow  cheek,  droops  in  his  totter- 
ing step,  and  laughs  to  scorn  all  his  learning  and 
gold  and  grandeur.  He  must  rid  himself  of  the 
malaria,  or  the  malaria  will  rid  itself  of  him. 

There  are  many  evils  in  the  world,  deep-seated 
and  deleterious.  I  rejoice  to  see  noble  men  and 
women  working  at  the  overthrow  .of  these  old 
Dagons ;  but  the  processes  are  many  and  long. 
Grievances  are  suffered  which  can  be  redressed 
only  by  the  repeal  of  old  and  the  enactment  of 
new  laws.  Health  suffers  from  ignorance  which 
scientific  discoveries,  patient  observation,  and  cor- 


A  TMOSPHERE. 

rect  reasoning  must  dispel.  Religion  suffers  from 
a  narrowness  and  shallowness  which  broader  and 
deeper  culture  must  remove.  "HeaTen  send  the 
laws,  the  science,  and  the  culture,  for  these  ills  are 
indeed  sore  and  of  long  continuance ;  but  we  need 
not  wait  upon  the  slow  steps  of  lawr  and  science. 
Every  man  and  woman  can  begin  at  this  moment 
a  renovation.  Behind  all  law  and  all  literature, 
the  very  air  we  breathe,  the  moral  atmosphere  not 
of  books  and  benches  only,  but  of  kitchen  and 
keeping-room,  is  impure  and  unwholesome.  The 
interests  of  humanity  demand  a  purification. 

-  What  I  am  going  to  say  may  have  been  said 
before ;  but  if  so,  the  present  condition  of  things 
shows  that  it  has  been  said  to  too  little  purpose. 
I  have  myself  glanced  at  it  askance,  but  I  have 
never  looked  it  square  in  the  face.  I  have  spoken 
ships  bound  to  my  port,  but  not  freighted  with 
my  cargo.  Success  to  them  all!  There  is  sea- 
room  for  every  keel,  and  use  for  all  their  treasures. 
I  am  so  far  from  claiming  to  be  original,  that  I 
rather  marvel  there  is  any  necessity  for  my  being 
at  all.  The  truths  which  I  design  to  illustrate  lie 
so  on  the  surface  that  I  should  suppose  they  would 
commend  themselves  to  the  most  casual  notice. 
I  can  account  for  the  obscurity  which  seems  to 
enshroud  them  only  by  supposing  that  the  days 
of  Eli  have  reached  down  to  us,  and  that  there 
is  no  open  vision.  Therefore  the  truth  needs 
to  be  repeated  and  repeated,  in  different  forms 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  3 

and  tones,  if  it  is  to  be  made  effectual  to  the  pull- 
ing down  of  strongholds.  I  will  do  my  part  of 
the  reiteration.  If  I  can  state  no  new  truths,  I 
will  at  least  help  to  ring  the  old  truths  into  the 
ears  of  this  generation  till  every  unjust  judge  shall 
moan  in  bitterness  of  soul,  "  Though  I  fear  not 
God  nor  regard  man,  yet,  because  these  women 
trouble  me,  I  will  avenge  them,  lest  by  their  con- 
tinual coming  they  weary  me." 

In  pursuance  of  my  plan,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
me  sometimes  to  recur  more  than  once  to  the  same 
topic ;  but  the  repetition  involved  will  be  more 
apparent  than  real.  It  will  be  such  repetition  as 
the  multiplication-table  displays,  whose  first  column 
gives  you  two  times  four,  its  third  four  times  two, 
its  fourth  four  times  five,  and  so  on  to  the  end. 
You  have  the  same  figures,  but  in  different  combi- 
nations. I  shall  bring  forward  the  same  facts,  but 
they  will  be  presented  under  different  lights,  and 
will  bear  upon  different  conclusions. 

I  shall  also,  without  hesitation,  discuss  topics 
on  which  I  have  spoken  at  former  times,  but  with- 
out perceiving  all  their  relations.  No  architect 
would  reject  stones  which  were  necessary  to  the 
symmetry  of  his  building  because  he  had  previ- 
ously used  them  for  other  purposes. 

I  shall  touch  upon  many  and  diverse  themes ; 
but  nothing  will  be  irrelevant.  An  atmosphere 
embraces  the  whole  globe,  and  nothing  human  is 
foreign  to  it. 


4  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

One  person  may  not  succeed  in  dispelling  all 
the  miasms  of  the  earth,  but  if  he  can  only  cleanse 
one  little  corner  of  it,  if  he  can  but  send  through 
the  murky  air  one  cool,  bracing,  healthy  gale,  he 
will  do  much  better  than  to  sit  under  his  vine, 
scared  by  the  greatness  of  the  evil  and  the  dig- 
nity of  those  who  support  it. 


II. 


» HE  laws  and  customs  regarding  the 
education  of  girls  and  the  employ- 
ment of  women  may  be  wrong  and 
difficult  of  righting ;  but  a  more  ele- 
mental wrong,  and  one  that  lies  within  reach  of 
every  parent,  is  the  coarse,  mercenary,  and  revolt- 
ing tone  of  sentiment  in  which  girls  are  brought 
up  and  in  which  women  live,  entirely  apart  from 
their  technical  education  and  employment.  I  re- 
fer now  to  the  refined  and  educated,  as,  well  as, 
and  indeed  more  than,  to  the  rude  and  illiterate, 
for  it  is  their  altitude  which  determines  the  level 
of  all  below.  This  tone  of  sentiment  is  such  as 
to  diminish  girls'  self-respect,  mar  their  purity, 
and  dwarf  their  being.  They  inhale,  they  imbibe, 
they  are  steeped  in  the  idea,  that  the  great  busi- 
ness of  their  life  is  marriage,  and  if  they  fail  to 
secure  that  they  will  become  utterly  bankrupt  and 
pitiable.  Naturally  this  idea  becomes  their  ruling 
motive ;  all  their  course  is  bent  to  its  guidance  ; 
and  from  this  idea  and  this  course  of  action  spring 


6  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

crime,  and  sorrow,  and  disaster,  "  in  thick  array 
of  depth  immeasurable." 

In  this  and  in  many  other  instances  you  will 
doubtless  think  that  I  overstate  the  truth.  Look- 
ing into  an  empty  bucket,  you  would  say  the  air  is 
colorless  ;  looking  into  the  depths  of  the  atmos- 
phere, you  see  that  it  is  blue.  I  am  not  writing 
about  a  bucket,  but  about  the  atmosphere. 

Viewing  the  circumstances  which  form  women, 
together  with  the  women  who  are  formed  by  them, 
one  is  filled  with  astonishment  at  the  indwelling 
dignity  and  divinity  of  the  womanly  nature  ;  and 
the  thought  can  but  arise,  if  a  flower  so  fair  can 
spring  from  a  soil  so  badly  tilled,  what  graceful  and 
glorious  growths  might  we  not  see  did  art  but 
combine  with  nature  to  produce  the  conditions  of 
the  highest  development !  We  lament  heathen- 
dom, but  much  of  our  spirit  is  essentially  heathen- 
ish. Little  girls  se>e  in  their  geographies  pictures 
of  Circassian  fathers  selling  their  daughters  to 
Turkish  husbands,  alid  they  think  it  very  inhuman 
and  pagan.  But,  little  girls,  your  fathers  will 
traffic  in  you  without  scruple.  Matters  will  not 
be  managed  in  quite  so  business-like  a  fashion,  but 
such  a  pressure  will  be  brought  to  bear  upon  you 
that  you  will  have  very  little  more  spontaneity 
than  the  Circassian  slave  who  looks  so  pitiful  in 
the  geography  book.  At  home  you  will  hear  your- 
self talked  about,  talked  at,  and  talked  to,  in  such 
a  manner  that  you  will  have  no  choice  left  but  to 


4   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  7 

marry.  It  is  expected  and  assumed.  I  do  not 
mean  girls  who  are  to  snatch  their  unhappy  fathers 
from  exposure  and  disgrace  by  a  rich  and  hated 
marriage.  Such  things  belong  to  ballads.  We 
are  dealing  now  with  life.  I  have  seen  girls,  — 
respectable,  well-educated,  daughters  of  Christian 
families,  of  families  who  think  they  believe  that 
man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him 
forever,  who  profess  to  make  the  Bible  their  rule 
of  faith  and  practice,  to  eschew  the  pomps  and 
vanities  of  this  world,  and  consecrate  themselves  to 
the  Lord,  —  who  are  yet  trained  to  think  and  talk 
of  marriage  in  a  manner  utterly  commercial  and 

o  «/ 

frivolous.  Allusions  to  and  conversations  on  the 
subject  are  of  such  a  nature  that  they  cannot  re- 
main unmarried  without  shame.  They  are  taught, 
not  in  direct  terms  at  so  much  a  lesson,  like  music 
or  German,  but  indirectly,  and  with  a  thorough- 
ness which  no  music-master  can  equal,  that,  if  a 
woman  is  not  married,  it  is  because  she  is  not 
attractive,  that  to  be  unattractive  to  men  is  the 
most  dismal  and  dreadful  misfortune,  and  that  for 
an  unmarried  woman  earth  has  no  honor  and  no 
happiness,  but  only  toleration  and  a  mitigated  or 
unmitigated  contempt. 

What  is  the  burden  of  the  song  that  is  sung  to 
girls  and  women  ?  Are  they  counselled  to  be 
active,  self-helpful,  self-reliant,  alert,  ingenious, 
energetic,  aggressive  ?  Are  they  strengthened  to 
find  out  a  path  for  themselves,  and  to  walk  in  it 


8  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

unashamed  ?  Are  they  braced  and  toned  up  to 
solve  for  themselves  the  problems  of  life,  to  bear  its 
ills  undaunted  and  meet  jts  happinesses  unbewil- 
dered?  Goto!  Such  a  thing  was  never  heard  of. 
It  is  woman's  rights !  It  is  strong-minded  !  It  is 
discontented  with  your  sphere  !  It  is  masculine  ! 
Milton  and  St.  Paul  to  the  rescue ! 

"  For  contemplation  he,  and  valor  formed, 
For  softness  she,  and  sweet  attractive  grace." 

So  "  she  "  is  urged  to  cultivate  sweet  attractive 
grace  by  acquainting  herself  with  housework,  by 
learning  to  sew,  and  starch,  and  make  bread,  to 
be  economical  and  housewifely,  and  so  a  helpmeet 
to  the  husband  who  is  assumed  for  her.  This  is 
the  true  way  to  be  attractive,  she  is  informed. 
"  Men  admire  you  in  the  ball-room,"  say  the  men- 
tors and  mentoresses,  u  but  they  choose  a  wife  from 
the  home-circle."  Marriage  is  simply  a  reward  of 
merit.  Do  not  be  extravagant,  or  careless,  or  bold, 
or  rude,  for  so  you  will  scare  away  suitors.  Be 
prudent,  and  tidy,  and  simple,  and  gentle,  and 
timid,  and  you  will  be  surrounded  by  them,  and 
that  is  heaven,  and  secure  a  husband,  which  is  the 
heaven  of  heavens.  A  flood  of  stories  and  anec- 
dotes deluges  us  with  proof.  Arthur  falls  in 
love  with  beautiful,  romantic,  poetic,  accomplished 
Leonie,  till  she  faints  one  day,  and  he  rushes  into 
her  room  for  a  smelling-bottle,  and  finds  no  harts- 
horn, but  much  confusion  and  dust,  while  plain 
Molly's  room  is  neat  and  tidy,  and  overflows  with 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  S 

hartshorn ;  whereupon  he  falls  out  of  love  with 
Leonie,  in  with  Molly,  and  virtue  and  vice  have 
their  reward.  Or  Charles  pays  a  morning  visit, 
and  is  entertained  sumptuously  in  the  parlor  by 
Anabel,  and  Arabel,  and  Claribel,  and  Isabel,  in 
silk,  while  Cinderella  stays  in  the  kitchen  in  calico 
and  linen  collar.  But  Charles  catches  a  glimpse 
of  Cinderella  behind  the  door,  and  loves  and 
marries  the  humble,  grateful  girl,  to  the  disap- 
pointment and  deep  disgust 4  of  her  flounced  and 
jewelled  sisters.  Or  Jane  at  the  tea-table  cuts 
the  cheese-rind  too  thick,  and  handsome  young 
Leonard  infers  that  she  will  be  extravagant ;  Har- 
riet pares  it  too  thin,  and  that  stands  for  niggardli- 
ness ;  but  Mary  hits  the  golden  mean,  and  is  re- 
warded with  and  by.  handsome  young  Leonard. 
Or  a  broomstick  lies  in  the  way,  over  which  Clara, 
Anna,  Laura,  and  the  rest  step  unheeding  or  in- 
different, and  only  Lucy  picks  it  up  and  replaces 
it,  which  Harry,  standing  by,  makes  a  note  of,  and 
Lucy  is  paid  with  the  honor  of  being  Harry's  wife. 
Moral:  Go  you  and  do  likewise,  and  verily  you 
shall  have  your  reward,  or  at  least  you  stand  a 
much  better  chance  of  having  it  than  if  you  do 
differently.  "  Be  good,  and  you  will  be  married," 
is  the  essence  of  the  lesson. 

Laying  aside  now  all  question  of  the  dignity  and 

delicacy  of  such  proceedings,  assuming  for  the  time 

that  it  is  the  proper  course,  let  us  notice  whether 

it  is  followed  out  to  its  conclusions.     Not  in  the 

i* 


10  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

least.  Having  done  its  best  to  transpose  the  fem- 
inine raw  material  into  the  orthodox  texture  and 
pattern  of  "  good  wives,"  society  lays  it  on  the 
shelf  to  run  its  own  risk  of  finding  a  purchaser. 
It  neither  provides  husbands  for  the  "  good  wives  " 
which  it  has  made,  nor  suffers  them  to  go  and  look 
up  husbands  for  themselves.  If  a  girl  is  ready  to 
enter  service,  she  can  enroll  her  name  at  the  intel- 
ligence office.  If  she  is  prepared  to  teach,  she 
sends  to  the  "  Committee."  If  she  desires  to  be  a 
saleswoman,  she  applies  at  the  different  shops ;  but 
your  "  good  wife  "  candidate  must  wait  patiently, 
—  not  the  grand  old  theological  "  waiting  in  the  use 
of  means,"  but  the  Micawber  waiting  for  something 
to  turn  up.  She  has  learned  the  bread-making 
and  the  clear-starching ;  she  is  mistress  of  domestic 
economy ;  she  is  familiar  with  all  the  little  details 
of  puddings  and  preserves ;  she  is  ripe  for  wife- 
hood  and  green  for  all  else,  and  now  she  wants 
an  arena  for  the  exercise  of  her  skill.  But  she 
would  better  pull  her  tongue  out  at  once  than  say 
so.  People  may  talk  to  girls  at  pleasure  of  the 
fair  domestic  realm  where  they  will  be  queen,  of 
the  glory  of  such  a  kingdom,  and  the  unsatisfying 
emptiness  of  any  and  every  other ;  but  no  crime 
is  more  fatal  to  a  girl's  reputation  and  prospects 
than  the  suspicion  of  husband-hunting.  That  fate, 
that  career,  that  glory,  which  has  been*  constantly 
mapped  out  to  her  as  the  very  Land  of  Promise, 
the  goal  of  her  ambition,  the  culmination  of  her 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  11 

happiness,  is  the  one  fate,  the  one  career,  the  one 
glory,  which  she  must  not  lift  an  eyelash  to 
secure.  Let  a  girl,  the  very  same  girl  whom 
you  have  been  pushing  through  a  course  of  the 
received  proper  training,  be  supposed  to  set  but  so 
much  as  a  feather  on  her  hat,  a  smile  on  her  lips, 
a  tone  in  her  voice,  to  attract  the  admiration  which 
she  has  been  constantly  taught  is  the  guerdon  of 
all  the  virtues,  —  and  her  reputation  sinks  at  once 
to  zero.  "  Trying  to  get  a  husband/'  whether 
couched  in  the  decorous  phrase  of  polite  society,  or 
in  the  uncompromising  language  of  more  primitive 
circles,  is  the  death-warrant  of  a  girl's  good  name. 
She  must  sedulously  prepare  herself  for  a  position 
to  which  she  must  be  totally  indifferent.  She 
must  learn  all  domestic  accomplishments,  but  she 
must  take  no  measures,  she  must  exhibit  no  symp- 
toms of  a  desire  to  secure  a  domestic  situation. 
You  bid  her  make  ready  the  wedding-garments 
and  the  marriage  feast,  and  then  sit  quietly  wait- 
ing till  the  bridegroom  cometh,  her  small  hands 
folded,  her  meek  eyelashes  drooping,  no  throb  of 
impatience  or  discontent  or  anxiety  in  her  heart, 
no  reaching  out  for  any  career  at  home  or  abroad, 
except  a  meek  ministration  in  her  father's  house, 
or  a  mild  village  benevolence.  But  will  Nature  set 
aside  her  laws  at  your  behest  ?  Is  it  of  any  use 
for  you  to  lay  down  your  yardstick  and  say,  "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther  "  ?  Do  you  not 
see  the  inevitable  result  is  a  course  of  falsehood  ? 


12  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

Is  this  a  strong  statement,  a  libel  upon  the  female 
sex?  But  you  read  novel  after  novel  in  which 
the  larger  number  of  women  —  all,  perhaps,  except 
the  heroine  —  are  represented  as  artful,  sly,  deceit- 
ful, managing;  and  generally  the  main  object  of 
their  artifice  is  to  secure  a  husband  for  themselves 
or  for  their  daughters :  yet  you  do  not  at  once  cry 
out  in  indignant  protest  against  such  misrepresen- 
tation. On  the  contrary,  you  follow  the  plot  with 
lively  interest,  think  the  author  has  a  very  clear 
insight  into  human  nature,  and  especially  excels  in 
the  delineation  of  female  character! 

Hear  what  one  of  your  own  writers  says:  "If 
all  the  world  were  paper,  all  the  sea  ink,  all  the 
plants  and  trees  pens,  and  every  man  a  writer,  — 
yet  were  they  not  able,  with  all  labor  and  cunning, 
to  set  down  all  the  craft  and  deceits  of  women." 

If  my  statement  is  a  libel,  it  is  less  a  libel  than 
statements  and  implications  under  which  people 
have  hitherto  rested  with  a  wonderful  degree  of 
equanimity.  It  would  be  marvellous  if  it  were 
a  libel.  A  girl  receives  such  training  that  it  i? 
wellnigh  impossible  for  her  to  be  sincere.  Yoi> 
cannot  give  her  whole  life  for  six  or  a  dozen  year? 
one  direction,  and  then  set  her  face  suddenly  to- 
wards another  quarter,  banishing  from  her  mind 
every  remembrance  of  past  lessons,  and  every 
thought  of  her  portrayed  future.  But  unless-  such 
an  erasure  is  made,  or  seems  to  be  made,  she 
knows  that  she  forfeits  good  opinion,  and  stands 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  13 

in  great  danger  of  losing  the  one  prize  which  has 
been  placed  before  her,  and  which  she  may  hope, 
but  must  not  be  detected  in  hoping,  to  win.  Con- 
sequently she  learns  to  dissemble.  It  is  her  only 
resource.  Duplicity  passes  into  her  blood,  and  she 
learns  to  conceal  and  deny  what  you  have  taught 
her  it  is  improper  to  feel,  but  what  you  have  also 
made  it  impossible  for  her  not  to  feel.  I  only 
wonder  that  any  uprightness  is  left  among  women. 
That  there  are  women  upon  whose  garments  the 
smell  of  fire  has  not  passed, — that  there  are  wo- 
men whose  robes  of  whiteness  have  but  a  faint 
tinge  of  flame,  —  is  not  because  the  fagots  have 
not  been  piled  around  them  and  the  torch  applied. 

This  is  one  result  of  the  famous,  the  infamous 
"  good  wife  "  doctrines. 

Another,  less  fatal  but  sufficiently  evil  and  more 
vexatious,  is  the  injury  that  is  inflicted  upon  nat- 
ural and  healthful  association.  Men  and  women 
are  not  allowed  to  look  upon  each  other  as  ra- 
tional beings ;  every  woman  is  a  wife  in  the  grub 
every  man  is  a  possible  husband  in  the  chrysalis  • 
state.  If  young  people  enjoy  each  other's  conver- 
sation, and  make  opportunities  to  secure  it,  there 
are  dozens  of  gossips,  male  and  female,  who  pro- 
ceed to  .forecast  "  a  match."  Intelligent  inter- 
change of  opinion  and  sentiments  between  a  man 
and  a  woman  for  the  mere  delight  in  it,  with  no 
design  upon  each  other's  name  or  fortune,  is  a 
thing  of  which  a  large  majority  of  civilized  Ameri- 


14  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

cans  have  no  conception.  Such  a  commodity 
never  had  a  place  in  their  inventory.  A  man  and 
a  woman  find  each  other  agreeable,  they  cultivate 
each  other's  society,  and  anon,  East,  West,  South, 
and  North  goes  the  report  that  they  are  "  en- 
gaged." It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  check  this  gives 

5  to  an  intercourse  that  would  be  in  the  highest 
degree  beneficial  to  both  sexes ;  beneficial,  by  giv- 
ing to  each  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the 

I  other,  and  by  improving  what  in  each  is  good,  and 
diminishing  what  is  bad. 

One  of  three  things  should  be  done :  cease  to 
urge  a  girl  on  to  marriage  by  every  terror  threat- 
ened and  every  allurement  displayed  ;  by  making 
it  the  reward  of  all  her  exertion,  the  arena  of  all 
her  accomplishment,  the  condition  of  all  her  devel- 
opment ;  or  take  measures  to  provide  her  with  a 
suitable  husband,  so  that  she  shall  not  be  left  for 
an  indefinite  time  in  uncertainty  and  doubt,  set- 
tling, perhaps,  at  length  into  frivolity,  waste,  and 
despair  ;  or  cease  to  condemn  her  for  taking  mat- 
ters into  her  own  hand,  and  furnishing  herself  an 
opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  those  powers  whose 
cultivation  you  have  strenuously  urged,  and  for 
whose  employment  you  have  made  no  provision. 
"  Get  a  husband !  "  Why  should  she  not  get  a 
husband  ?  What  should  you  think  of  a  boy  who 
had  been  fitted  by  long  training  for  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  a  clergyman,  or  a  lawyer,  or  a 
statesman,  and  should  then  make  no  attempt  to 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  15 

become  a  clergyman,  a  lawyer,  or  a  statesman  ? 
What  would  you  think  of  a  father  who  should 
train  his  son  for  any  especial  office,  and  should  then 
forbid  his  son,  upon  pain  of  universal  derision,  to 
do  anything  to  secure  an  induction  into  office  ? 

I  am  loath  to  linger  here,  but  I  descend  into  the 
valley  of  shadows  to  show  that,  even  on  your  own 
ground,  you  are  a  wicked  and  slothful  servant.  . 

Whom  do  I  mean  by  "  you"  ?  I  mean  ninety- 
nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  the  men  who  will  read 
this,  and,  in  a  modified  degree,  all  the  women 
whom  they  have  drilled  to  acquiescence  in  their 
decisions. 

This  baleful  teaching  goes  still  further.  It  not 
only  drives  girls  into  deception :  it  drives  them 
into  uncongenial  marriages.  It  forces  them  to 
degradation.  It  does  not  permit  them  to  view 
marriage  in  its  natural  and  proper  light.  By  per- 
petually assuming  it  as  their  destiny,  even  before 
they  have  any  knowledge  either  of  marriage  or 
destiny,  you  so  force  their  inclinations  that  they 
come  to  prefer  marrying  an  indifferent  person  to 
not  marrying  at  all,  —  or  even  to  running  the  risk 
of  not  marrying  at  all.  Instead  of  letting  their 
minds  take  a  healthful  turn,  branching  off  in  such 
directions  as  nature  chooses,  you  dwarf  them  in 
every  direction  but  one,  and  in  that  you  stimulate. 
If  society  were  equally  divided ;  if  for  every  girl 
there  were  a  man  exactly  adapted  to  her,  and  the 
two  might  by  your  words  be  induced  to  meet  and 


16  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

marry,  your  talk  might  be  harmless,  and  possibly 
beneficial ;  but  as  the  world  is,  -at  least  this  part 
of  it,  there  is  no  such  arrangement,  and  no  remote 
possibility  of  such  an  arrangement.  The  material 
does  not  exist,  even  suppose  the  sagacity  to  discern 
and  dispose  of  it  did.  The  number  of  women  is 
ttluch  larger  than  the  number  of  men.  In  New 
England,  at  least,  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  for  a 
woman  to  set  her  heart  on  marrying  for  a  living. 
JVhen,  therefore,  you  make  marriage  indispensable, 
you  institute  an  indiscriminate  scramble.  Since  in 
theory  every  girl  must  marry,  and  there  are  few  to 
choose  from,  she  must  take  such  as  she  can  get,  and 
be  thankful.  She  would  like  this,  that,  or  the 
other  quality,  but  it  will  not  do  to  dally.  The 
chance  of  a  better  husband  is  very  remote  ;  num- 
bers are  worse  off  than  she,  inasmuch  as  they 
have  none  at  all ;  the  contingency  of  going  unsup- 
plied  is  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  accordingly  she 
takes  up  with  what  comes  to  hand.  The  few 
who  are  endowed  with  unusual  charms  of  mind  or 
person  may  exercise  a  limited  choice,  but  the  com- 
mon run  of  girls  must  make  a  common  run  of  it. 
If  one  who  is  so  attractive  as  to  have  many  ad- 
mirers' remains  long  unmarried,  she  is  abundantly 
admonished  of  her  danger.  She  is  duly  informed 
that  she  will  one  day  grow  old,  and  will  certainly  not 
always  have  such  opportunities  as  she  now  enjoys. 
Her  attractiveness  is  her  stock  in  trade,  which  sho 
must  invest  while  the  market  is  brisk.  Great  will 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  17 

be  her  loss  if  she  does  not.  If  without  special 
attractions,  a  girl's  position  is  still  more  embarrass- 
ing. Dependent  in  her  father's  house,  with  no 
career  open  to  her,  no  arena  for  her  action,  what 
is  to  become  of  her  ?  Anything*  is  better  than  a 
dependence  which,  her  own  heart  tells  her,  is  not 
long  grateful  to  her  father.  He  may  not  be  unkind 
or  miserly  toward  her  ;  he  may  not  —  and  he  may, 
for  such  things  are  done  —  taunt  her  with  her 
want  of  success  in  making  a  match ;  he  may  even 
be  generous  and  chivalric  towards  her ;  but  she  is 
conscious  that  he  is  disappointed.  He  may  not 
acknowledge  it  even  to  himself,  but  she  knows 
that  she  is  not  fulfilling  his  wishes,  not  meeting 
his  ideal.  Her  support  is  somewhat  a  burden,  her 
enforced  presence  somewhat  a  shame.  He  rejoiced 
in  her  infancy,  childhood,  and  youth,  but  he  did 
not  expect  to  have  her  on  his  hands  all  her  life. 
He  would  gladly  spend  twice  as  much  on  her  dowry 
as  he  gives  for  her  allowance.  She  has  a  sense  of 
all  this,  and,  rather  than  remain  in  this  state  of 
pupilage,  a  woman  in  character,  a  child  in  position, 
she  marries  the  first  man  that  holds  out  the  golden 
spectre,  —  I  meant  sceptre,  but  perhaps  the  first 
will  do  just  as  well.  I  am  speaking  of  the  masses. 
I  know  that  there  are  exceptions.  In  spite  of  cir- 
cumstances, there  are  wromen  so  strong,  —  strong- 
minded  if  you  like,  but  so  symmetrical  that  you 
see  no  peculiar  strength  or  sweetness,  only  "  a  per- 
fect woman," —  so  strong,  that  public  opinion  and 


18  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

private  opinion,  all  the  blare  and  blarney  of  lecture- 
room  and  female-school  orators,  all  the  thinly  dis- 
guised paganism  of  church-worldlings,  beat  against 
them  and  leave  them  unmoved  as  Gibraltar  by 
the  summer  ripples  of  its  southern  sea.  You  see 
them  yourself,  perhaps  ;  but  so  beautiful,  so  gentle 
and  lovely,  that  you  do  not  discern  the  granite 
which  underlies  beauty  and  grace,  and  which  alone 
redeems  beauty  and  grace  from  the  charge  of  gaud, 
and  makes  their  value ;  and  in  your  low  Dutch 
dialect  you  u  wonder  she  doesn't  get  married." 

There  are  fathers  and  mothers,  though  these  are 
rarer,  who  joy  in  their  children  with  a  rational 
and  Christian  joy ;  who  believe  in  God  and  right- 
eousness, immortality  and  human  destiny ;  whose 
daughters  are  polished  stones,  not  in  the  palaces 
of  earthly  pride,  vanity,  and  ambition,  but  in  the 
temple  of  the  living  God.  Such  parents  and  such 
children  are  few,  but  they  are  enough  to  reveal 
possibilities.  The  higher  the  few  can  reach,  the 
higher  the  many  shall  rise.  But  these  are  the 
strong,  and  the  strong  can  take  care  of  themselves. 
I  have  nothing  t*  say  for  them .  I  speak  for  those 
who  are  not  strong,  —  for  the  good  and  true-heart- 
ed, who  feel  themselves  overborne  by  external 
pressure,  and  swept  along  into  a  hateful  and  hated 
vortex,  —  for  those  who  wish  to  lead  an  upright 
Christian  life,  but  who  need  a  helping  hand.  Still 
more,  and  saddest  of  all,  I  speak  for  those  on 
whom  the  blight  has  so  long  rested  that  they  have 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  19 

lost  the  sense  of  uprightness ;  they  feel  no  wrong, 
and  aspire  to  nothing  higher.  More  than  this, 
I  speak  for  those  whose  opening  lives  are  yet 
untouched,  for  whom  warning  and  caution  may 
not  be  too  late.  It  is  these  —  the  weak,  the  plastic, 
the  impressible  —  whom  your  earth-born  morality 
is  corrupting,  whose  possibilities  of  happiness  and 
self-respect  your  enervating  woman's-sphere-ism 
is  destroying.  Women  may  be  weak,  yet  even  in 
weakness  is  strength,  but  you  have  trodden  down 
strength.  You  trample  under  foot  all  sensibility, 
all  delicacy,  all  dignity.  A  woman  can  preserve 
her  integrity  only  so  far  as  she  repels  and  re- 
presses your  miserable  didactics  ;  —  by  word  and 
look,  if  the  power  be  given  her ;  by  a  silent  indig- 
nation of  protest,  if  that  is  her  only  resource. 

I  know  well,  judging  from  past  experience,  that 
there  will  not  be  wanting  those  who  will  think  I 
am  depreciating  and  deprecating  marriage.  But 
it  would  be  extremely  foolish  to  set  one's  self 
against  marriage,  for  it  would  be  holding  out  a 
straw  to  dam  a  river.  I  not  only  do  not  hold  out 
the  straw,  I  do  not  even  wish  to  dam  the  river. 
But  I  would  prevent  it  from  being  banked  up  here 
and  banked  up  there,  and  narrowed,  twisted,  and 
tortured,  till  it  bursts  all  bounds,  natural  and 
acquired,  and  rushes  wildly  over  the  country, 
destroying  villages,  inundating  harvests,  sweeping 
away  lives,  and  becoming  a  terror  and  a  fate  in- 
stead of  the  beneficence  it  was  meant  to  be. 


20  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

I  depreciate  marriage  ?  I  magnify  it !  It  is 
you  that  depreciate,  by  debasing  it.  You  lower 
it  to  the  level  of  the  market.  You  degrade  it  to 
a  question  of  political  and  domestic  economy.  You 
look  upon  it  as  an  arrangement.  I  believe  it  to  be 
a  sacrament.  You  subordinate  it  to  ways  and 
means.  I  see  in  it  the  type  of  mortal  and  im- 
mortal union.  You  make  it  but  the  cradle  of 
mankind.  I  make  it  also  the  crown.  All  that  is 
tender,  grand,  and  ennobling  finds  there  its  home, 
its  source  and  sustenance,  its  inspiration,  and  its 
exceeding  great  reward. 

But  by  as  much  as  marriage  is  sacred,  by  so 
much  is  he  a  blasphemer  who  travesties  it ;  and  he 
thrice  and  four  times  blasphemous  who  leads  others 
to  do  so.  No  sin  is  so  dwelt  on  in  the  Bible  with 
a  stern,  reiterated  fixedness  of  divine  abhorrence 
as  the  sin  of  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who 
made  Israel  to  sin.  They  who  barter  their  chil- 
dren for  a  string  of  beads,  or  a  talent  of  gold,  are 
no  more  pagan  than  they  who,  by  accumulated 
indirections,  lead  them  to  barter  themselves.  1 
do  not  undertake  the  defence  of  all  "  woman'& 
rights,"  but  with  whatever  strength  God  has 
given  me  I  will  do  battle  for  woman's  right  to  be 
pure.  u  Caesar's  wife  should  be  above  suspicion," 
said  haughty  Caesar,  and  the  world  applauds ;  but 
every  woman  is  czarina  by  divine  right.  No 
wretched  outcast,  wandering  through  the  darknesa 

of  the  great  city, 

. 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  21 

"  With  hell  in  her  heart 

And  death  in  her  hand, 
Daring  the  doom  of  the  unknown  land/' 

but  has  lost  a  crown.  For  her  who,  through 
weakness  or  despair,  has  forfeited  her  birthright, 
the  world  has  no  pardon.  I  do  not  say  that  ye 
should  pray  for  it  to  be  otherwise.  But  a  deeper 
sin,  a  tenfold  more  gross  and  revolting  violation 
of  God's  law  written  on  the  human  heart,  —  giving 
force  to  the  law  written  erewhile  on  the  tables 
of  stone,  —  does  she  commit  who,  in  the  holy  name 
of  love,  under  the  holy  forms  of  marriage,  burns 
incense  to  false  gods.  Where  love  may  walk 
white-robed  and  stainless,  brushing  the  morning 
dews  from  the  grass,  only  to  descend  again  in 
fresher  and  fragrant  showers,  pride  or  prudence 
or  ambition  can  but  bring  the  deepest  profanation : 
roses  spring  in  his  pathway ;  behind  them  is  the 
desert. 

Marriage  contracted  to  subserve  material  ends, 
however  innocent  those  ends  may  be  in  themselves, 
is  legalized  prostitution ;  as  much  more  vilifying, 
as  mischief  framed  by  a  law  is  more  destructive 
than  mischief  wrought  in  spite  of  law.  To  such 
vrice  the  world  is  lenient,  scarcely  recognizing  it  as 
vice ;  but  the  soul  bears  its  marks  of  wounds  for- 
ever and  forever. 

Marriage  is  a  result,  not  a  cause.  In  God's 
great  economy  it  may  have  its  separate  and  im- 
portant work ;  but  from  a  human  point  of  view,  it 


22 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 


is  conclusion  and  not  premise.  It  cannot  be  made 
the  premise  without  bringing  fatal  and  disastrous 
conclusions.  Whatever  ends  nature  may  design 
her  institution  to  compass,  be  sure  nature  will 
work  out. 


III. 


DO  not  design  to  sketch  any  Utopia  for 
woman;  but  there  are  certain  things 
which  can  be  done  in  this  world,  in 
this  country,  in  this  generation,  at  this 
moment,  —  simple,  practical,  practicable  measures, 
which  can  be  accomplished  without  any  change 
in  laws,  without  any  palpable  revolution  or  dis- 
ruption of  society,  but  by  wrhich  women  shall  be 
relieved  of  the  indignity  that  is  constantly  put 
upon  them,  even  by  the  society  which  considers 
itself,  and  which  perhaps  is,  the  most  civilized  and 
chivalric  in  the  world. 

First,  every  man  who  has  daughters  is  either 
able  to  support  them  or  he  is  not.  If  he  is,  he 
ought  to  do  it  in  a  way  that  shall  make  them  feel 
as  little  trammelled  as  possible.  He  should  so  treat 
them,  from  first  to  last,  that  they  shall  feel  that 
they  are  dear  and  pleasant  to  him,  his  delight  and 
ornament.  So  far  from  wishing  to  be  rid  of  them, 
he  finds  his  balm  and  solace  and  zest  of  life  in  their 
society,  their  interests,  and  their  ministrations. 


24  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

While  he  contemplates  the  contingency  of  their 
marriage,  and  makes  what  preparations  such  con- 
tingency may  require,  it  should  be  well  under- 
stood that  he  contemplates  it  only  as  a  contingency ; 
and  that  all  his  wishes  and  hopes  will  be  best  met 
by  their  happiness,  whether  it  is  to  be  promoted 

]  by  a  life  away  from  him  or  with  him.  If  they  are 
SD  deficient  in  amiability,  capability,  or  adaptability 

<  that  his  home  cannot  be  comfortable  with  them  in 
it,  —  that,  so  far  from  being  a  reason  why  he  should 
be  eager  to  part  with  them,  is  the  strongest  reason 
why  he  should  earnestly  endeavor  to  keep  them 
with  him.  Almost  without  fail,  their  faults  lie  at 
his  door ;  and  it  is  just  and  right  that,  if  any 
home  is  to  be  made  miserable  by  them,  it  should 
be  the  one  which  has  made  them  miserific.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  they  wish  to  go  from  his  roof 
to  follow  paths  of  their  own,  he  ought  to  aid  and 
encourage  them  as  far  as  lies  in  his  power.  It 
matters  not  that  he  is  able  and  willing  to  supply 
their  every  want.  He  is  not  able,  if  they  have 
immortal  wants,  —  wants  which  the  parental  heart 
and  purse  cannot  satisfy,  —  want  of  activity,  want 
of  a  plan,  want  of  some  work  which  shall  engage 
their  young  and  eager  energies.  However  liberal, 
kind,  and  fond  he  may  be,  in  their  father's  house 
their  position  must  be  subordinate,  and  it  may  well 
happen  that  they  shall  wish  to  taste  the  sweets 
of  an  independent,  self-helping,  self-directing  life. 
They  wish  to  feel  their  own  hands  at  the  helm  ; 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  25 

they  wish  to  know  what  responsibility  and  fore- 
sight and  planning  mean.  They  are  drawn  by 
a  strong,  inexplicable  attraction  in  certain  direc- 
tions ;  and  as  he  values  not  only  their  happiness, 
but  their  salvation,  —  their  lo\  e  for  him,  their 
health  of  body  and  mind,  —  he  shall  give  them  am- 
ple room  and  verge  enough.  He  shall  not  abato 
one  jot  or  tittle  of  fatherly  affection.  He  shall 
not  attempt  to  persuade  them  from  their  inclina- 
tion till  he  finds  persuasion  of  no  avail,  and  then 
in  a  fit  of  angry  petulance  bid  them  go,  and  leave 
them  to  their  own  destruction.  He  shall  give 
them  such  aid  as  can  be  made  available.  He 
shall  surround  them  with  his  love,  if  not  with  his 
care.  He  shall,  above  all,  show  them  that  his 
arms  are  always  open  to  them,  if  through  weak- 
ness or  weariness  they  faint  by  the  way.  His 
sympathy  and  protection,  and  fatherly  cherishing, 
shall  be  new  every  morning  and  fresh  every  even- 
ing. If  they  quickly  tire  in  their  new  paths,  they 
will  come  back  to  him  with  stronger  love  and 
faith.  Their  life  abroad  will  have  only  endeared 
their  happy  home.  The  enlargement  of  their  ex- 
perience will  have  intensified  their  appreciation  of 
their  blessings.  If  their  call  was  indeed  from 
above,  and  their  first  feeble  explorations  opened  for 
them  a  new  world,  through  which  they  learn  to 
walk  with  ever  firmer  tread,  they  will  return 
from  time  to  time  to  lay  at  his  feet  with  unut- 
terable gratitude  the  treasures  which  he  enabled 


26  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

them  to  discover.  He  will  know  that  he  has  con- 
tributed to  the  world's  wealth,  and  his  hapov 
children  will  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed. 

^5ut  if  they  do  not  incline  to  such  a  life,  he  shall 
not  force  them,  however  strongly  he  may  be  per- 
suaded of  its  propriety,  wisdom,  and  dignity,  fee- 
cause  they  are  obliged  to  grow  under  the  whole 
superincumbent  weight  of  society,  he  must  not  be 
severe  if  they  attain  but  a  partial  growth.  With 
boys  the  preponderance  of  influence  is  overwhelm- 
ingly on  the  side  of  an  active,  positive  life.  With 
girls,  it  is  against  it.  If  a  boy  does  not  do  some- 
thing in  the  world,  he  must  show  cause  for  it ;  a 
girl  must  show  cause  if  she  does.  Therefore,  if 
the  father  is  not  able,  by  precept  and  persuasion, 
to  induce  his  daughters  to  embrace  an  active  life, 
he  must  lay  it  to  society,  and  do  the  next  best 
thing  by  protecting  them  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  resultant  evils  of  their  situation  ;  not  quite  all 
to  society  either,  for,  as  a  general  thing,  if  his  own 
precept  and  example  have  been  right,  his  children 
will  be  right ;  the  influence  of  father  and  mother, 
by  its  nearness,  intensity,  and  continuity,  very 
often  more  than  balances  the  superior  bulk  of 
society's  influence.  Parents  say  things  which 
they  ought  to  mean,  and  which  they  wish  to  be 
considered  to  mean,  and  which  they  suppose  they 
do  mean,  but  which  they  are  really  the  farthest  in 
the  world  from  meaning,  and  then  marvel  that 
their  children  should  disregard  their  instructions 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  27 

and  go  wrong;  but  such  instructions  are  but  as 

the  dust  in  the  balance.     The  ideal  which  they 

/Actually,  though  perhaps  unconsciously,  hold  up  to 

/  their  children,  is  the  model  upon  which  the  chil- 

Ljjren  form  themselves.     What  they  are,  not  what 

they  say,  is  the  paramount  influence.    So  if  a  father 

heartily  believes  in  womanly  work,  his  daughters 

will  hardly  fail  to  be  woman-workers. 

If  a  father  is  not  able  to  support  his  daughters 
in  a  manner  compatible  with  comfort  and  refine- 
ment, he  should  see  to  it  that  they  have  some  way 
opened  in  which  they  can  do  it,  or  help  do  it,  for 
themselves,  in  a  manner  consistent  with  their  dig- 
nity and  self-respect.  It  is  very  rarely  that  a 
human  being  is  born  without  possible  power  in 
some  one  direction.  The  field  which  is  traversable 
to  women  is  much  more  circumscribed  than  that 
which  is  traversed  by  men,  yet  I  have  somewhere 
read  a  statement  that  the  number  of  employments 
in  which  women  of  the  United  States  are  actually 
engaged  is,  I  think,  greater  than  five  hundred. 
If  this  is  so>  or  anything  nearly  so,  men  surely 
have  no  need  to  "marry  off"  their  daughters  as 
an  economical  measure.  Out  of  five  hundred 
occupations,  a  woman  can  certainly  choose  one 
which,  though  not  perhaps  that  which  enlists  her 
enthusiasm,  is  yet  better  than  the  debasement  of 
herself  which  an  indifferent  marriage  necessitates. 
It  is  better  to  be  not  wholly  well-placed  than  to 
be  wholly  ill-placed.  Indeed,  there  are  many 


28  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

chances  in  favor  of  the  assumption  that  she  may 
find  even  a  suitable  employment.  Literature  and 
art  are  open  to  her  on  equal  terms  with  men. 
Teaching  is  free  to  her,  with  the  disadvantage  of 
being  miserably,  shamefully,  wickedly  underpaid, 
both  as  regards  the  relative  and  intrinsic  value  of 
her  work ;  but  this  is  an  arrangement  which  does 
not  degrade  her,  only  the  men  who  employ  her. 
Many  mechanical  employments  she  is  at  perfect 
liberty  to  acquire,  and  the  greater  delicacy  of  her 
organization  gives  her  a  solid  advantage  over  her 
masculine  competitors.  In  factories,  in  printing- 
offices,  and  in  all  manner  of  haberdashers'  shops, 
she  is  quite  at  home  ;  and  this  branch  of  trade  she 
ought  to  monopolize,  for  surely  a  man  is  as  much 
out  of  his  sphere  in  holding  up  a  piece  of  muslin  at 
arm's  length,  and  expatiating  on  its  merits  to  a 
bevy  of  women,  as  a  woman  is  in  the  pulpit  or 
before  the  mast.  Especially  do  private  houses 
invite  her  over  all  the  country.  The  whole  land 
groans  under  inefficient  domestic  assistance ;  and 
if  healthy,  intelligent,  well-behaved  American  girls 
would  be  willing  to  work  in  kitchens  which  they 
do  not  own  one  half  as  hard  as  most  women  work 
in  kitchens  which  they  do  own,  thousands  of  doors 
would  fly  open  to  them.  There  is  a  foolish  pride 
and  prejudice  which. rises  up  against  "  going  out  to 
service."  But  everybody  in  this  world,  who  is 
not  a  cumberer  of  the  ground,  is  out  at  service. 
If  it  is  true  service  and  well  performed,  one  thing 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  29 

is  as  honorable  as  another.  The  highest  plaudit 
mortal  can  hope  to  receive  is,  "  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant."  It  is  the  absence  of  moral 
dignity  and  character,  not,  as  is  often  supposed,  its 
presence,  which  causes  this  reluctance.  A  noble- 
man ennobles  his  work.  A  king  among  basket- 
makers  is  none  the  less  a  king.  How  women 
can  be  so  enamored  of  the  needle  as  to  choose  to 
make  a  pair  of  cotton  drilling  drawers,  with  buckles, 
button-holes,  straps,  and  strings,  for  four  and  one 
sixth  cents,  or  fine  white  cotton  shirts  with  fine 
linen  "bosoms"  for  sixteen  cents  apiece,  rather 
than  go  into  a  handsome  house  in  the  next  street 
to  make  the  beds,  and- scour  the  knives,  and  iron  the 
clothes  for  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  week,*  besides  board 
and  rent,  I  do  not  understand.  That  so  many  are 
ready  to  brave  the  din  of  machinery,  and  the  smells 
of  a  factory  for  ten  hours  a  day,  with  only  a  great, 
dreary,  unhomelike  boarding-house  to  go  to  at 
night,  while  there  are  so  very  few,  if  any,  who  are 
willing  to  preside  over  a  comfortable  and  plentiful 
kitchen,  with  at  least  a  possibility  of  home  com- 
forts, pleasant  association,  and  true  appreciation,  is 
equally  inexplicable. 

But  enough  has  been  said  to  show,  that,  if  women 
have  a  desire,  or  are  under  the  necessity,  of  get- 
ting an  honest  living,  ways  and  means  may  be 
found ;  not  so  stimulating,  not  so  lucrative,  not  so 

*  This  was  written  before  the  advent  of  high  prices.  At  pres- 
ent such  service  would  command  perhaps  twice  that  sum. 


SO  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

varied  as  might  be  desired,  but  honest  and  honor- 
able. Girls,  however,  make  the  mistake  of  rush- 
ing pell-mell  into  school-houses,  as  if  that  were 
the  only  respectable  path  to  independence.  I 
heard  a  man  the  other  day  speaking  about  the 
High  School  of  his  native  city.  It  was  a  good 
school,  —  he  had  nothing  to  say  against  its  con- 
duct, —  it  gave  girls  a  good  education  ;  and  yet  he 
sometimes  thought  it  did  more  harm  than  good. 
Every  year  a  class  was  graduated,  and  they  were 
all  ladies  and  did  not  want  to  w.ork,  but  must 
all  teach,  and  there  were  no  schools  for  so  many ; 
what  could  be  done  with  them  ?  It  was  an 
evil  that  seemed  to  be  growing  worse  every  year. 
The  implied  grievance  was,  that  educated  wromen 
were  a  drug  in  the  market;  and  the  implied  rem- 
edy, that  girls  should  be  left  more  uncultivated 
that  they  might  be  turned  to  commoner  uses.  I 
pass  over  that  accurate  knowledge  of  things  shown 

in  the  unconscious   contrast  between  working  and 

fc> 

teaching,  —  over  the  gross  utilitarianism  implied 
in  both  grievance  and  redress, — simply  remarking, 
that,  if  the  excess  of  supply  over  demand  would  jus- 
tify the  breaking  up  of  High  Schools,  the  domestic 
education  of  this  generation  should  be  largely  dis- 
continued for  the  same  reason,  and  that  in  fact 
there  seems  to  be  no  real  and  adequate  resource, 
/except  to  manage  with  girl  babjes  as  you  do  with 
(Jdttens,  save  the  fifth  and  drown  the  rest,  —  to  say 
that  girls  do  very  wrong  in  regarding  teaching  aa 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  31 

the  sole  or  the  chief  honorable  employment.  That 
occupation  is  the  one  for  them  to  which  a  natural 
taste  calls  them,  no  matter  what  may  be  its  rank 
in  society.  In  fact,  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that 
society  looks  with  a  degree  of  disfavor  on  any 
remunerative  employment  for  women.  To  be 
entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  cavil,  they  must  be 
consumers,  and  not  producers  ;  and  since,  to  turn 
into  producers  will  forfeit  somewhat  their  caste, 
let  them  make  capital  out  of  the  rural  and  remote 
adage,  that  one  may  as  well  be  hung  for  a  sheep 
as  a  lamb,  and  while  they  are  about  it,  follow  the 
thing  that  good  is  to  them.  If  girls  of  wealth 
and  standing,  who  also  possess  character  and  de- 
cision, would  act  upon  their  principles  when  they 
have  them,  and  follow  the  lead  of  their  tastes  when 
their  taste  leads  them  into  a  milliner's  shop,  or  a 
watch  factory,  or  a  tailor's  room,  they  would  do 
much  more  than  satisfy  their  own  consciences. 
They  would  do  a  service  to  their  sex,  and  through 
their  sex  to  the  other,  and  so  to  the  whole  world, 
which  would  outweigh  whatever  small  sacrifice  it 
might  cost  them.  For  the  world  is  so  constituted 
that  to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given.  If  he  have 
power,  he  shall  have  still  more.  Those  who  are 
independent  of  the  world's  sufferance  are  toler- 
ably sure  to  get  it.  Let  a  poor  girl  go  to  work, 
and  it  is  nothing  at  all.  She  is  obliged  to  do  it, 
and  society  does  not  so  much  as  turn  a  look  upon 
her ;  but  let  a  girl  go  out  from  her  brown-stone 


32  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

five-story  house,  from  the  care  and  attendance  of 
servants,  to  work  for  three  or  five  hours  a  day, 
because  she  honestly  believes  that  the  accident  of 
wealth  does  not  relieve  her  from  moral  responsi- 
bility, and  because,  of  all  forms  of  labor  practicable 
to  her,  that  seems  the  one  to  which  she  is  best 
adapted,  and  immediately  there  is  a  commotion. 
The  brown-stone  friends  are  shocked  and  scandal- 
ized, which  is  probably  the  best  thing  that  could 
happen  to  them.  Desperate  cases  can  only  be 
electrified  back  into  life.  But  it  is  the  first  girl 
alone  that  will  cause  a  shock.  The  second  will 
make  but  a  faint  sensation.  The  third  will  be 
quite  commonplace,  and  when  things  come  to  that 
pass,  that  if  a  woman  wishes  to  do  a  thing  she  can 
do  it,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it,  there  is  little  more 
to  be  desired  in  that  line. 

I  know  a  young  lady,  the  only  daughter  of  a 
distinguished  family,  with  abundant  means  at  her 
command,  with  parents  whose  great  happiness  it  is 
to  promote  hers,  —  a  young  lady  who  has  only  to 
fancy  what  a  nice  thing  it  must  be  to  live  in  a 
bird's-nest  on  a  tree-top,  and  immediately  the  car- 
penters come  and  build  her  a  bower  in  the  tallest 
tree  that  overlooks  the  sea.  This  young  lady  has 
a  strong  inclination  to  surgery,  a  most  perverted 
and  unwomanly  taste,  of  course ;  but  so  long  as  it 
is  a  womanly  weakness  to  break  one's  arms,  per- 
haps it  is  as  well  that  some  woman  should  be  un- 
womanly enough  to  set  them.  At  any  rate,  there 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  33 

was  the  taste  ;  nobody  put  it  there,  and  something 
must  be  done  about  it.  Being  the  sensible  daugh- 
ter of  sensible  parents,  who  looked  upon  tastes 
as  hints  of  powers,  instead  of  disregarding  this 
hint  and  devoting  her  life  to  her  garden,  making 
calls,  and  a  forced  and  feeble  piano-worship,  —  all 
very  nice  things,  but  not  quite  exhaustive  of  im- 
mortal capacities,  —  she  set  herself  down  to  the 
study  of  surgery  and  medicine.  It  was  no  super- 
ficial and  sensational  whim.  Year  after  year, 
month  after  month,  week  after  week,  showed  no 
abatement  of  enthusiasm.  On  the  contrary,  her 
interest  grew  with  her  growing  knowledge.  She 
left  without  regret,  without  any  weak  regrets,  her 
luxurious  home  for  the  secluded  and  severe  stu- 
dent's life,  and  by  patient  and  laborious  application 
made  herself  master  of  the  science.  I  look  upon 
her  almost  as  an  apostle,  though  she  is  very  far 
from  taking  on  apostolic  airs.  She  quietly  pursues 
the  even  tenor  of  her  way  as  if  it  were  the  beaten 
track.  But  in  doing  this  she  does  ten  thousand 
times  more.  She  opens  the  path  for  a  host  of  feet 
less  strong  than  hers. 

But  one  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  woman's 
attaining  strength  is  her  lack  of  perseverance.  Of 
the  many  pursuits  possible  to  women,  few  are  em- 
braced to  any  great  extent,  because  girls  are  said 
to  be,  and  probably  are,  unwilling  to  bestow  upon  a 
trade  or  a  profession  the  study  and  thought  which 
are  necessary  to  insure  skill.  But  this  is  a  result 
2*  c 


34  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

as  well  as  a  cause,  and  must  be  removed  by  the 
removal  of  the  cause.  Promotion  and  political 
preferment  shine  before  a  man  as  a  reward  for 
whatever  eminence  of  character  or  intelligence  he 
may  attain.  His  business  is  a  separate  depart- 
ment, and  dispenses  its  separate  reward.  The  first 
of  these  is  entirely,  and  the  second  partially,  want- 
ing to  women.  A  female  assistant  in  a  high 
school,  a  woman  of  education,  refinement,  accom- 
plishments, tact,  and  sense,  receives  six  hundred 
dollars,  and  if  she  stays  six  hundred  years  she  will 
receive  no  more.  A  male  assistant,  fresh  from 
a  college  or  a  normal  school,  thoroughly  unsea- 
soned, without  elegance  of  manners,  or  dignity  of 
presence,  or  experience,  teaching  only  tempora- 
rily, with  a  view  to  the  pulpit,  or  the  bar,  or  a 
professorship,  receives  a  thousand  dollars.  His 
thousand  is  because  he  is  a  man.  Her  six  hun- 
dred is  because  she  is  a  woman.  Her  little  finger 
may  be  worth  more  to  the  school  than  his  whole 
body,  but  that  goes  for  nothing.  In  a  certain 
"  college  "  I  wot  of,  the  "  Professors  "  have  a  larger 
salary  than  the  "Preceptresses,"  who  perform  dou- 
ble the  amount  of  labor,  and  without  any  hope  of 
promotion.  Female  assistants  in  a  grammar  school 
receive  three  or  four  hundred  dollars  where  the 
male  principal  has  ten  or  twelve  hundred,  and 
where  the  difference  of  salary  bears  no  propor- 
tion to  the  difference  of  care  and  labor.  No 
matter  how  assiduously  they  may  devote  them- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  35 

selves  to  their  duties,  nor  how  successful  they  may 
be  in  results,  they  have  attained  the  maximum. 
Worse  than  this :  since  the  increase  of  prices  con- 
sequent upon  the  war,  teachers'  salaries  have  been 
increased ;  but  where  two  hundred  dollars  have 
been  added  to  the  salary  of  the  male  principal, 
only  twenty-five  have  been  added  to  those  of  the 
female  assistants :  so  that  the  man's  salary  is  six- 
teen per  cent  higher,  while  the  woman's  is  only  six 
per  cent  higher.  This  is  done  in  Massachusetts. 
One  excuse  is,  that  it  does  not  cost  a  woman  so 
much  to  live  as  it  costs  a  man.  It  costs  a  woman 
just  as  much  to  live  as  it  does  a  man.  If  men  would 
be  willing  to  practise  the  small  economies  that  wo- 
men practise,  they  could  live  at  no  greater  expense. 
There  are  some  things  in  which  women  have  the 
advantage ;  there  are  others  in  which  it  lies  with 
the  man.  A  woman's  calico  gown  does  not  cost 
so  much  as  a  man's  broadcloth  coat,  but  her  dress, 
the  wardrobe  through,  costs  just  as  much  as  his. 
He  can  be  decent  on  just  as  small  a  sum  as  she. 
Another  excuse  is,  that  men  have  a  family  to  sup- 
port. I  suppose,  then,  that  women  never  have 
families  to  support.  No  female  teacher  ever  has 
a  widowed  mother  or  an  invalid  father  to  assist,  or 
brothers  and  sisters  to  educate.  No  widow  ever 
had  recourse  to  the  school-room  to  provide  bread 
for  her  fatherless  children.  Or  if  such  things  ever 
happen,  the  authorities  make  adequate  provision 
for  it.  The  school  committee,  of  course,  before  it 


36  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE, 

assigns  the  salary  inquires  into  these  background 
facts,  and  acts  accordingly.  The  rich  girl  has  in- 
deed but  a  small  income  from  her  teaching,  but 
the  poor  girl  is  paid  according  to  the  number  of 
people  dependent  upon  her,  and  the  unmarried 
J  man  is  confined  to  narrower  fortunes. 

You  know  that  such  a  thing  is  never  done.  The 
men  always  receive  the  high  salaries  and  the  wo- 
men always  receive  the  low  salaries  ;  no  one  ever 
asks  who  does  the  work  or  who  supports  the  fami- 
lies. It  is  only  a  feeble  excuse  to  hide  men's  self- 
ish greed.  They  are  the  lions,  and  they  take  the 
lion's  share.  They  can  give  themselves  plenty  and 
women  a  pittance,  and  they  do  it,  and  they  mean 
to  do  it,  and  they  will  do  it.  It  matters  not  that 
the  ten  or  twelve  or  fourteen  hundred  dollars  di 
vided  among  the  man's  family  of  himself,  his  wife, 
and  his  one  or  two  or  no  children,  gives  to  each, 
even  to  the  little  baby  playing  on  the  floor,  as 
much  money  for  support  as  the  female  teacher  re- 
ceives who  devotes  her  whole  time  and  strength 
to  the  school.  It  matters  not  that  his  children  are 
growing  up  to  be  the  staff  of  his  declining  years, 
while  the  unmarried  female  assistant  has  only  her 
own  self  for  reliance.  Man  is  a  thief  and  holds 
the  bag,  and  if  women  do  not  like  to  teach  for  what 
they  can  get,  so  much  the  better.  They  will  be  all 
the  more  willing  to  become  household  drudges. 

Again,  read  the  following  paragraph  from  a  prom- 
inent newspaper  printed  in  Massachusetts. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  37 

"  The  custom  of  employing  ladies  as  clerks  in 
the  public  departments  at  Washington  is  meeting 
with  increased  favor.  It  is  said  that,  generally 
speaking,  they  write  more  correctly  than  the  men, 
and  as  they  receive  much  smaller  salaries,  the  gain 
to  the  government  is  considerable." 

Could  six  lines  better  express  the  wickedness  of 
the  relations  which  exist  between  man  and  woman 
under  the  "  best  government  in  the  world  "  ?  The 
shabby  chivalry  of  "  ladies  "  ;  the  matter-of-fact 
manner  in  which  not  only  a  wrong,  but  an  absurd- 
ity, is  mentioned,  as  if  it  were  as  evident  as  a  syl- 
logism, and  had  no  more  to  do  with  morality  than 
the  multiplication-table  ;  and  then  the  neat  little 
patriotico-economical  chuckle  at  the  end  !  Women 
do  the  work  better  than  men,  and  receive  much 
smaller  salaries.  A  logical  sequence,  and  an  ex- 
cellent example  of  the  reasoning  which  is  brought 
to  bear  on  women.  Especially  dignified  and  com- 
manding is  the  attitude  assumed  for  our  govern- 
ment. The  Great  Republic,  stretching  its  arms 
across  a  continent,  vexing  every  land  for  its  treas- 
ures, and  whitening  every  sea  with  its  sails,  yet 
stoops  over  a  poor  woman's  pocket  to  take  toll  of 
the  few  pennies  which  her  labor  has  fairly  earned. 
"  The  wise  save  it  call." 

But  there  is  a  lower  deep  than  this.  The  very 
same  paper  that  so  naively  blazoned  forth  its  own 
shame,  made  another  brilliant  essay  at  about  the 
same  time.  I  quote  the  paragraph  from  memory, 
but  it  is  substantially  correct. 


38  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

"  Miss  Anna  Dickinson  demanded  three  [or  six, 
or  whatever  it  was]  hundred  dollars  for  two  lec- 
tures delivered  for  the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Fair 
in  Chicago.  Miss  Charlotte  Cushman  gave  eight 
thousand  dollars,  the  entire  proceeds  of  her  theatri- 
cal tour,  to  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Comment 
is  unnecessary." 

For  all  that,  we  will  have  a  little  comment.  Here 
is  one  woman  in  a  million  rising  by  the  sheer  force 
of  her  God-given  genius  above  the  miserable  ne- 
cessities of  women.  She  needs  not  to  endure  or  to 
beg.  She  is  sovereign  in  her  own  right  and  can 
dictate  her  own  terms.  Men  cannot  grind  her  face, 
for  she  is  stronger  than  they.  What  do  they  do  ? 
They  hold  her  up  to  odium  because  they  cannot 
extort  from  her  the  money  which  they  cannot  pre- 
vent her  from  earning.  Most  women  they  can  pre- 
vent from  earning  it.  Most  working-women  they 
can  keep  down  to  what  prices  they  choose  to  pay. 
But  here  is  one  to  whom  they  cannot  dole  out 
pennies:  "with  one  white  arm-sweep  "  she  gathers 
in  a  golden  harvest.  But  they  will  at  least  force 
her  Pactolian  stream  into  a  channel  of  their  own 
choosing.  Not  at  all. 

"  If  she  will,  she  will,  you  may  depend  on  't ; 
If  she  won't,  she  won't,  and  there  's  an  end  on  't." 

Nothing,  therefore,  is  left  to  these  high-minded 
gentry,  but  to  stand  at  a  distance  and  "  mako 
faces"! 

Somebody  assumed  to  excuse  Miss  DickinsoD, 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.      .  39 

by  saying  that  she  gave  up  other  and  far  more  lu- 
crative engagements  for  this  ;  but  it  was  entirely  a 
work  of  supererogation.  Miss  Dickinson  needed 
no  excuse.  One  might,  indeed,  think  within  him- 
self that  Miss  Cushman  has  nearly  closed  her  pub- 
lie  career,  and  is  already  possessed  of  an  indepen- 
dent fortune,  while  Miss  Dickinson's  life  lies  before 
her,  and  her  fortune  is  still  to  be  made.  But  all 
this  is  irrelevant.  The  whole  paragraph  is  an  im- 
pertinence. Why  is  any  person  to  be  mulcted 
at  another's  instance  in  any  sum  for  any  charity 
or  any  purpose  whatever  ?  What  right  has  any 
newspaper  to  decide  the  direction  or  the  amount 
of  a  citizen's  benevolence?  Had  it  concerned  a 
man,  it  would  have  been  impertinence  ;  concern- 
ing a  woman,  it  is  something  worse,  — not  because 
of  her  womanhood,  but  because  of  the  injustice 
which  is  wrought  upon  her  sex  wherever  there 
is  the  ability  to  be  unjust. 

These  are  very  small  things,  but  they  are  signs 
of  great  ones. 

It  may  be  inferred,  therefore,  that  woman's  in- 
difference to  excellence  in  work  does  not  necessa- 
rily impugn  either  her  character  or  calibre.  Ex- 
cellence is  indeed  good  in  itself,  and  desirable, 
without  reference  to  the  money  it  brings ;  yet 
money  and  promotion  are  a  spur,  and  therefore 
they  must  be  taken  into  the  account  when  we  are 
dealing  with  facts  and  not  merely  with  theories. 

Now,  then,  let  women,   disregarding  senseless 


40  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 


and  wicked  customs,  make  a  point  of  making  a 
point  of  something,  and  then  let  them  lay  aside 
every  weight  which  social  injustice  or  indifference 
hangs  upon  them,  and  the  consequent  sin  of  super- 
ficiality which  so  easily  besets  them,  and  make  that 
point  perfect.  No  matter  that  they  are  ill-paid 
and  held  down,  let  them  assert  themselves  ;  let 
them  work  so  well  that  their  work  shall  assert  itself, 
and  pay  and  promotion  will  come  —  to  woman,  if 
not  to  themselves  —  as  the  inevitable  result. 

I  do  not  mean  that  every  woman  should  study 
medicine,  or  apprentice  herself  to  a  trade.      In- 
deed, I  consider  it  to  be  a  wrong  state  of  society 
in  which  there  is  any  other  necessity  for  her  doing 
so  than  that  which  arises  from  her  own  inward 
promptings.      It  is  very  likely  that  she  can  find 
>n  her  father's  house  abundant  scope  for  the  exer- 
cise of  every  faculty.     She  may  have  a  leaning  to 
home  life,  and  to  no  other.    Because  a  girl  remains 
at  home,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  she  is  accom- 
plishing nothing.     What  I  do  mean  is,  that  she* 
shall  not  dawdle  away  her  time  simply  because  s 
is  a  girl ;  and  that  if,  moved  by  her  own  instincts,^, 
which  are  from  God,  or  impelled  by  circumstances,^ 
which  are  generally  the  fault  of  men,  she  enters.: 
the   arena  where   men  strive,  she  shall  have  no^ 
other    disabilities    than    those  which  Nature  lays] 
upon  her.     Do  not  fail  to  note  the  distinction  be- 
tween choice  and  necessity  in  her  adoption  of  a 
career.     When  a  woman,  of  her  own  free  will  and 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  41 

delight,  pursues  a  study  or  an  occupation  beyond 
the  common  female  range,  it  is  one  thing.  When 

o    7  o 

she  is  obliged  to  earn  her  own  living,  and  for  that 
purpose  goes  out  into  the  paths  where  men  walk, 
it  is  another  thing.  In  both  cases  she  should  work 
on  equal  terms  with  men ;  in  the  first,  because  the 
very  strength  of  her  purpose,  overcoming  the  natu- 
ral disinclinations  of  her  sex,  shows  it  to  be  of 
celestial  origin,  and  therefore  worthy  of  respect ;  in 
the  second,  because,  if  man  fails  to  give  to  woman 
the  support  which  is  her  due,  the  smallest  step  to- 
wards reparation  is  to  allow  her  every  advantage 
in  the  attempt  to .  support  herself.  It  is  always  a 
sorrowful,  I  think  it  is  always  an  injurious  thing, 
for  a  woman  to  be  obliged  to  compete  with  men, 
that  is,  to  earn  money.  She  can  do  it  only  at  the 
constant  torture,  or  the  constant  sacrifice  —  per- 
haps both  —  of  something  higher  than  can  be 
brought  into  the  strife.  But  so  much  the  more 

o 

should  she  be  freed  from  every  unnecessary  pain 
and  hinderance.  Moreover,  evil  as  is  the  imperative 
assumption  by  woman  of  man's  work,  it  combats  a 
greater  evil,  and  therefore  also  should  her  hands 
be  upheld.  The  most  persistent  and  kindly  en- 
couragement can  never  change,  in  the  womanly 
heart,  love  of  home  into  love  of  conquest  and  re- 
nown ;  but  it  can  do  much  to  soften  the  harshness 
of  an  uncongenial  lot,  and  take  somewhat  from  the 
bitterness  of  a  cup  that  never  can  be  sweet. 

The  mere  fact  of  a  daughter's  services  being 


42  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

needed  at  home  is  no  reason  why  they  shall  be 
claimed  after  she  has  become  of  age,  either  through 
years,  or  maturity  of  character,  when  such  service 
is  distasteful  to  her,  and  other  service  is  tasteful 
and  possible.  If,  for  instance,  a  girl  has  a  strong 
desire  to  be  a  milliner,  or  a  mantua-maker,  or  an 
artist,  she  should  not  be  prevented  because  her 
mother  wants  her  at  home  to  help  take  care  of 
the  children  and  do  the  work.  I  suppose  ta  many 
this  will  seem  unnatural  and  undutiful.  It  is  nei- 
ther the  one  nor  the  other.  There  are  remarka- 
ble notions  afloat  concerning  nature  and  duty.  If 
one  may  judge  from  popular  ethics,  the  duty  seems 
to  lie  chiefly  on  one  side.  Lions,  we  are  told, 
would  appear  to  the  world  in  a  very  different  light 
if  lions  wrote  history  ;  so  filial  and  parental  rela- 
tions, discussed  as  they  always  are  by  the  parental 
part  of  the  community,  have  a  different  bearing 
from  what  they  would  if  looked  at  from  the  chil- 
dren's point  of  view.  In  our  eagerness  to  enforce 
the  claims  which  parents  have  on  children,  we 
seem  sometimes  ready  to  forget  the  equally  strin- 
gent claims  which  children  have  on  parents.  Much 
is  said  about  the  gratitude  which  parental  care  im- 
poses upon  the  child;  very  little  about  the  respon- 
sibility which  his  involuntary  birth  imposed  upon 
himself. 

Here  is  a  daughter,  an  immortal  being,  account- 
able to  God.  Surely,  when  she  has  become  a 
woman,  she  has  a  right  to  direct  her  life  in  the 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  43 

manner  best  adapted  to  bring  out  its  abilities.  No 
human  being  has  a  right  to  appropriate  another 
human  being's  life,  —  even  if  they  be  mother  and 
daughter.  You  say  that  she  owes  life  itself  to  her 
parents.  True,  but  in  such  a  way  that  it  confers 
an  additional  obligation  on  them  to  give  her  every 
opportunity  to  make  the  most  of  life,  and  not  in 
such  a  way  as  to  justify  them  in  monopolizing  it, 
nor  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  her  accountable  to 
them  alone  for  its  use.  The  person  who  gives  life 
is  under  much  stronger  bonds  than  the  person  who 
receives  life.  Life  is  a  momentous  thing.  It  may 
be  an  eternal  curse.  It  is  almost  certain  to  in- 
volve deep  sorrow.  Sin,  disease,  pain,  are  almost 
sure  to  follow  in  its  wake.  It  is  a  Pandora's  box 
whose  best  treasure  is  only  a  compensation.  The 
happiest  thing  we  know  of  it  is,  that  it  will  one 
day  come  to  an  end :  Psyche  will  rend  off  her  dis- 
guises, and  soar  in  her  proper  form.  The  uncer- 
tainty of  the  future  is  our  solace  against  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  present.  Surely,  then,  of  all  people  in 
the  world,  those  who  impose  this  fearful  burden 
are  the  very  last  who  should  add  even  a  feather's 
weight  to  it,  and  the  very  first  and  foremost  who 
should  at  any  sacrifice  of  less  important  matters 
lighten  it  as  far  as  possible.  Filial  unfaithfulness/ 
is  a  sin,  but  parental  unfaithfulness  is  a  chief  off 
sins.  The  first  violates  relations  which  it  finds.: 
The  second  violates  those  which  it  makes.  Almost 
invariably  the  second  is  the  direct  cause  of  the  first. 


44  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

There  may  be  extraordinary  malformations  :  a  child 
may  be  born  with  some  organic  incapacity  for  love, 
or  gratitude,  or  virtue,  as  children  are  born  blind 
or  deaf.  But,  as  a  rule,  parental  love  and  wisdom 
result  in  filial  love  and  duty  growing  stronger  and 
stronger  every  day,  and  removing  the  possibility 
of  sacrifice  by  making  all  service  a  pleasure.  Be- 
cause, where  I  knew  the  circumstances,  I  never  saw 
an  instance  of  filial  misbehavior  that  could  not  be 
traced  directly  to  parental  mismanagement  or  neg- 
lect, I  believe  it  is  so  where  I  do  not  know  the 
circumstances.  I  am  persuaded  that  Solomon  had 
the  spirit  of  truth  when  he  declared,  "  Train  up 
a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is 
old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  A  son  administers 
arsenic  to  his  parents,  and  the  world  starts  back  in 
horror.  I  would  not  diminish  its  horror ;  but  be- 
fore you  lavish  all  your  execration  on  the  son,  find 
out  whether  the  parents  have  not  been  administer- 
ing poison,  or  suffered  poison  to  be  administered,  to 
his  mind  and  heart  from  his  earliest  infancy.  Be 
shocked  at  that.  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  a  son 
born  of  virtuous  parents,  and  wisely  trained  in  the 
ways  of  virtue,  who  turned  about  and  poisoned  his 
parents  after  he  had  grown  up.  The  eider-duck 
plucks  the  down  from  her  own  breast  to  warm  the 
nest  for  her  young,  and  I  do  not  suppose  an  un- 
grateful or  rebellious  eider-duckling  was  ever  heard 
of;  but  if  the  eider-duck  plucks  the  down  from  the 
breasts  of  her  young  to  line  the  nest  for  herself — 
what  then  ? 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  45 

If  a  daughter,  out  of  love  or  a  "  sense  of  duty," 
chooses  to  sacrifice  her  inclinations,  —  by  inclina- 
tions I  do  not  mean  the  mere  promptings  of  self- 
indulgence,  but  the  voice  of  her  soul  calling  her 
to  a  work  in  life,  —  I  say  not  that  she  does  not 
well.  I  only  say  that  her  mother  has  no  right  to 
demand  such  a  sacrifice.  It  is  an  unjust  exaction. 
It  is  a  selfish  building  up  of  comfort  on  the  ruins 
of  another's  happiness,  possibly  of  character,  since 
few  things  are  so  apt  to  warp  the  tone  of  mind  and 
temper  as  a  forced  performance  of  unsuitable  work. 
Before  children  are  old  enough  to  choose  for  them- 
selves, their  parents  must  choose  for  them,  —  even 
then  with  a  wary  care  lest  they  mistake  a  prompt- 
ing of  nature  for  a  whim,  but  every  restraint  that 
is  put  upon  a  child  for  any  other  purpose  than  his 
own  benefit  is  a  sin  against  a  soul.  What  duty 
his  love  does  not  prompt,  you  shall  not  by  the  sheer 
brute  force  of  your  position  require.  His  life  is  in 
his  own  hands,  put  there  by  you,  and  he  must 
make  it  into  a  vessel  of  honor  or  dishonor.  You 
shall  not  hold  back  his  hand  from  working  its  own 
beautiful  designs,  that  it  may  putty  up  the  cracks 
in  your  time-worn  vessel.  You  make  great  ac- 
count of  the  care  which  you  took  of  his  helpless 
infancy ;  but  he  owes  no  especial  gratitude  for 
that.  As  may  be  inferred  from  what  I  have  be- 
fore said,  it  was  a  debt  you  owed  him.  Having 
endowed  him  with  life,  the  least  you  could  do  was 
to  help  him  make  the  best  of  it.  It  would  have 


46  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

been  cruel  not  to  do  it.  You  have  only  made 
things  even  in  doing  it,  —  and  hardly  that.  Be- 
sides, such  considerations  are  logically  useless.  You 
may  fill  a  child's  book,  paper,  and  ears  with  his 
mother's  anxiety  and  care  for  him.  You  may  tell 
him  how  she  has  watched  over  him  and  toiled  for 
him  during  his  helpless  infancy,  and  conjure  him 
on  that  account  to  love  and  obey  her.  It  will  be 
a  waste  of  breath.  You  might  just  as  well  conju- 
gate a  Latin  verb  to  him.  He  will  no  more  form 
an  intelligent  conception  of  a  mother's  love  and 
care  from  your  most  forcible  description,  than  he 
would  from  amo,  amas,  amat.  He  is  not  capable 
of  such  a  conception.,  A  child's  love  is  an  in- 
stinct. It  gradually  develops  into  a  sentiment 
which  permeates  his  whole  being.  The  mother's 
love  is  also  an  instinct.  She  nurses  her  child  just 
as  instinctively  as  a  hen  gathers  her  chickens  un- 
der her  wings.  There  generally  is  something  more 
than  instinct,  but  there  is  instinct.  But  at  no 
stage  of  a  child's  life  is  love  a  matter  of  reasoning. 
If  it  is  within  him,  it  cannot  be  argued  out ;  if  it 
is  not,  it  cannot  be  argued  in.  Never  a  person 
loved  because  he  was  convinced  he  ought  to  love. 
lie  loves  because  he  loves,  and  that  is  all  that  can 
be  said  about  it. 

I  hope  I  shall  not  be  considered  as  attempting 
to  weaken  the  cords  between  parents  and  children. 
On  the  contrary,  I  wish  to  strengthen  them.  But 
I  wish  to  strengthen  them  by  making  them  of  that 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  47 

unseen,  spiritual  substance  which  alone  is  worthy 
of  the  relation,  — proof  against  every  external  force, 
and  drawing  more  and  more  closely  with  every 
opening  year,  —  not  of  that  gross  and  palpable  out- 
ward material  which  chafes  and  irritates,  and  which 
will  snap  asunder  the  moment  that  young  vigor 
spreads  its  wings. 


IV. 


NOTHER  truth,  which  seems  to  have  , 
been  forgotten,  and  which  needs  to  be , 
newly  revealed  to  this  generation,  is, ' 
that  though  manhood  and  womanhood 
are  two  distinct  things,  the  humanity  which  under- 
lies them  is  one  and  indivisible.  We  are  told  that 
God  made  man  male  and  female,  but  we  are  first 
told  that  God  made  man  in  his  own  image.  There 
is  no  distinction.  Woman  is  made  in  God's  image 
just  as  much  as  man  ;  and  it  is  just  as  wicked  to 
deface  that  image  in  her  as  in  him.  It  is  defaced 
when  her  powers  are  crippled,  and  her  organs  en- 
feebled, whether  it  be  by  turning  her  toes  under 
till  they  touch  the  heels,  and  then  bandaging  them 
so,  or  whether  that  process  be  enacted  on  her 
mind.  If  a  boy  should  stand  god-like  erect,  in  na- 
tive honor  clad,  so  should  a  girl.  She  may  not  be 
as  tall,  but  she  may  be  as  straight.  The  palm  can- 
not turn  into  an  oak,  and  has  not  the  smallest  de- 
sire to  turn  into  an  oak  ;  but  there  is  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  be  the  best  kind  of  a  palm,  —  and 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  49 

in  the  deserts  of  this  world  a  fruitful  palm  cheereth 
the  heart  of  both  God  and  muti. 

Read,  in  the  light  of  these  facts,  a  "  sonnet"  and 
its  accompanying  comments,  which  I  chanced  to 
find  while  looking  over  a  twelve-year-old  number 
of  a  magazine  which  stands  among  the  first  in 
America. 

"  The  learned  '  science-women  '  of  the  day,  the 
4  deep,  deep-blue  stockings '  of  the  time,  are  fairly 
hit  off  in  the  ensuing  satirical  sonnet :  — 

o 

'  I  idolize  the  LADIES  !     They  are  fairies, 
That  spiritualize  this  world  of  ours ; 
From  heavenly  hot-beds  most  delightful  flowers, 
Or  choice  cream-cheeses  from  celestial  dairies, 
But  learning,  in  its  barbarous  seminaries, 
Gives  the  dear  creatures  many  wretched  hours, 
And  on  their  gossamer  intellect  sternly  showers 
SCIENCE,  with  all  its  horrid  accessaries. 
Now,  seriously,  the  only  things,  I  think, 
In  which  young  ladies  should  instructed  be, 
Are  — stocking-mending,  love,  and  cookery !  — 
Accomplishments  that  very  soon  will  sink, 
Since  Fluxions  now,  and  Sanscrit  conversation, 
Always  form  part  of  female  education  !  * 

Something  good  in  the  way  of  inculcation  may 
be  educed  from  this  rather  biting  sonnet.  If 
wroian  so  far  forgets  her  '  mission,'  as  it  is  com- 

O  ' 

mon  to  term  it  now-a-days,  as  to  choose  those 
accomplishments  whose  only  recommendation  is 
that  they  are  '  the  vogue,'  in  preference  to  ac- 
quisitions which  will  fit  her  to  be  a  better  wife 


50  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

and  mother,  she  becomes  a  fair  subject  for  the 
shafts  of  the  satirical  censor." 

Leaving  "  gossamer  intellects "  to  educe  what- 
ever of  good  in  the  way  of  inculcation  may  be 
found  in  this  biting  sonnet,  and  in  the  equally 
mordacious  remarks  of  the  mulierivorous  com- 
mentator, let  me  refer  to  another  paragraph  in 
which  popular  opinion  is  crystallized.  It  is  found 
in  a  book  printed  and  published  in  London,  and 
coming  to  me  through  several  hands  from  the 
library  of  an  English  nobleman,  but  a  book  so 
atrocious  in  its  sentiments,  and  so  feeble  in  its 
expression,  that  I  will  not  give  the  small  impulse 
to  its  circulation  which  the  mention  of  its  name 
might  impart :  "  In  woman,  weakness  itself  is  the 
true  charter  of  power  ;  it  is  an  absolute  attrac- 
tion, and  by  no  means  a  defect ;  it  is  the  mys- 
terious tie  between  the  sexes,  a  tie  as  irresistible 
as  it  is  captivating,  and  begetting  an  influence  pe- 
culiar to  itself."  This  is  the  fancy  sketch.  One 
of  our  best  writers  has  drawn  the  true  portrait  of 
such  a  woman :  a  woman  "  to  be  the  idol  of  her 
school-boy  son,  to  be  remembered  in  his  gray  old 
age  with  a  reverential  tenderness  as  a  glorified 
saint,  but  a  woman  also  to  drive  that  same  son  to 
desperation  in  actual  life  by  her  absorption  in 
trifles,  by  her  weak  credulity,  ....  by  her  in- 
ability to  sympathize  with  his  ambition,  to  enter 
into  his  difficulties,  or  to  share  in  the  faintest  de- 
gree his  aspirations." 

' 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  51 

w  In  short,"  proceeds  the  advocate  of  the  oak- 
and- vine  humanity,  "  all  independence  is  unfemi- 
nine; the  more  dependent  that  sex  becomes,  the 
more  will  it  be  cherished." 

Independence  is  unfeminine:  what  a  pity  that 
starvation  and  insanity  are  not  unfeminine  also ! 
Independence  is  unfeminine,  but  what  provision 
is  made  for  dependence  ?  Look  about  the  world. 
How  many  men  are  there,  dependence  on  whom 
would  be  agreeable  to  a  sensitive  woman  ?  and 
what  shall  the  women  do  who  have  nobody  to  be 
dependent  on,  —  the  women  without  husbands  or 
fathers,  and  the  women  with  drunken,  thriftless, 
extravagant,  miserly,  feeble  or  incapable  husbands 
or  fathers?  When  every  woman  in  the  coun- 
try is  placed  above  the  possibility  of  want,  it  will 
be  time  enough  to  talk  about  the  sweets  of  de- 
pendence ;  but  so  long  as  women  are  liable,  and 
are  actually  reduced  to  want,  to  shame,  to  igno- 
miny, to  starvation,  and  degradation  and  death, 
through  the  meanness,  the  misconduct,  or  the  in- 
ability of  their  natural  protectors,  it  will  be  well 
at  least  to  connive  at  their  efforts  to  help  them- 
selves. An  independent  woman  may  be  a  nui- 
sance, but  I  think  rather  less  so  than  an  immoral 
woman,  or  an  insane  woman,  or  a  dead  woman  in 
the  bottom  of  a  canal  in  Lowell,  or  a  I've  woman 
making  shirts  for  Milk  Street  merchants  in  Bos- 
ton, at  five  cents  apiece.  O  men,  you  who  shut 
your  eyes  to  the  stern  and  awful  facts  of  life,  and 


52  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

rhapsodize  over  your  fine-spun  theories,  what  will 
you  say  when  the  Lord   maketh   inquisition  for 
blood  ?     In  that  great  and  terrible  day  that  shall 
;  open  the  books  of  judgment,  that  shall  wrest  from 
/  the  earth  and  the  sea  the  secrets  which  are  in 
'    them,  when  the   dead  women   come   forth  from 
their  suicidal  graves,  when  they  swarm  up  from 
under  the  river-bridges,  when  they  pour  out  from 
the  gateways  of  hell,  will  it  seem  to  you  then  a 
,    wise  and  righteous  thing  that  you  branded  inde- 
pendence as  unfeminine  ? 

Apart  from  the  bearings  of  this  doctrine,  one 
word  as  to  its  facts.  There  are  two  kinds  of  de- 
pendence, —  the  one  of  love,  the  other  of  neces- 
sity. Each  may  comprise  the  other,  and  all  is 
well.  But  each  may  exist  without  the  other,  and 
then  half  is  ill.  The  first  is  a  delight.  The  sec- 
ond is  a  dread.  The  first  is  a  delight,  —  but  no 
more  to  woman  than  to  man,  for  though  the  mat- 
ters in  which  they  are  dependent  differ,  the  de- 
pendence itself  is  mutual,  and  mutually  dear  and 
j>recious.^  Nobody  need  enforce  it  by  argument. 
It  commends  itself  by  its  own  inherent  sweetness. 
But  the  second  is  an  evil,  and  only  an  evil  under 
the  sun,  —  a  state  which  no  man  and  no  woman 
of  any  spirit  will  for  a  moment  willingly  endure 
Dependence  is  a  joy  only  where  it  is  a  boon  ;  other 
wise  it  is  a  burning  torture  if  there  is  any  soul  to 
feel. 

But  masculine   deprecation   of  feminine   inde- 


A  NEW    ATMOSPHERE.  53 

pendence  is  not  entirely  owing  to  a  tender  regard 
for  the  preservation  unimpaired  of  feminine  loveli- 
ness.    Men  think  if  women  strike  out  in  a  career  / 
of  their  own,  the  matter  of  securing  and  disposing/ 
of  a  wife  may  not  be  quite  the  easy  thing  it  is  atf 
present. 

They  now  have  things  their  own  way.  The 
world  is  all  before  them  where  to  choose.  They 
have  only  to  walk  leisurely  on,  and  it  is  O  whistle 
and  I  '11  come  to  you,  my  lad.  You  think  I  put  it 
too  strongly :  that  is  because  you  are  looking  into 
the  bucket.  I  am  speaking  of  the  atmosphere. 
You  have  only  to  listen  to  the  usual  talk  of  usual 
people  in  villages  and  cities,  and  to  the  floating 
literature.  You  are  not  to  take  the  intellectual 
in  the  one,  nor  the  immortal  in  the  other,  for  their 
rills  spring  from  deeper  sources,  and  represent  the 
individual.  It  is  the  flitting,  the  ephemeral,  the 
stories  that  Maggie  Marigold  and  Kittie  Katnip 
print  in  the  county  papers  ;  it  is  the  talk  that 
Mrs.  Smith  and  Mrs.  Jones  have  about  Nancy 
Briggs  ;  it  is  the  women  in  the  novels  who  are 
not  the  heroines,  —  these  give  the  best  photograph 
of  actual  popular  opinion,  and  these  give  you  six 
women  intriguing  for  one  man.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  at  first  sight  men  should  think  it  a  fine 
thing  to  have  a  whole  bazaar  of  beauty  to  choose 
from,  with  the  market  so  glutted  that  the  goods 
will  be  sold  at  prices  to  suit  the  purchasers.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  be  very  good  or  very  great,  to 


54  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

win  the  prize.  There  is  no  prize  to  be  won.  It 
is  only  pick  and  choose.  But  have  men  no  mis- 
givings ?  Is  necessity  the  surest  warrant  of  adap- 
tation ?  Are  men  conscious  that  their  assumption 
is,  that  they  are  so  unattractive,  and  the  marriage 
yoke  so  heavy,  that  women  will  not  endure  either 
unless  they  are  left  without  any  other  resource  ? 
/Is  it  pleasant  to  reflect  that  they  cannot  trust  them- 
selves to  woo,  but  that  girls  must  be  reduced  to  the 
alternative  of  marriage  or  nothing  ?  What  pleas- 
ure can  there  be  in  a  victory  so  easily  gained  ? 
I  know  a  man  who  says  the  reason  why  he  mar- 
ried his  wife  was,  because  she  was  the  only  girl  in 
the  town  whom  he  was  not  sure  of  beforehand. 
With  nothing  to  do,  women  are  as  beggars  by  the 
wayside,  holding  up  their  feeble  hands  to  the 
passer,  and  entreating,  "We  will  eat  our  own 
bread  and  wear  our  own  apparel :  only  let  us  bo 
called  by  thy  name  to  take  away  our  reproach. " 
Is  this  pleasant  to  think  of?  Does  it  flatter  a 
man's  self-love  ?  Would  it  not  be  more  agreeable 
for  a  husband  to  suppose  that  he  is  his  wife's 
choice  and  not  —  Hobson's? 

Let  boarding-school  anniversary  orators  and. 
Mother's  Magazine  editors  trust  more  in  nature, 
and  make  themselves  easy.  Providence  is  never 
at  a  loss.  There  is  not  the  slightest  danger  that 
marriage  will  fall  into  disuse  through  the  absorp- 
tion of  female  interests  in  other  directions.  If  every 
girl  in  the  world  were  independent,  full  mistress  of 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  55 

herself,  she  would  not  be  any  more  disinclined  to 
marriage  than  she  is  now.  She  would  not  hang 
upon  its  skirts,  dragging  them  into  the  mud,  with 
such  a  helpless,  desperate  death-clutch  as  now. 
She  would  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  every  schemer, 
every  speculator,  every  unprincipled,  unscrupulous 
manikin,  who  knows  no  better  use  for  angels  than 
to  wash  the  dishes.  She  would  not  be  such  an 
article  of  traffic,  such  a  beast  of  burden,  such  a 
tame,  spiritless,  long-suffering,  sly  little  sycophant, 
as  she  too  often  is  now.  There  is  not  one  woman 
in  a  million  who  would  not  be  married,  if —  I  bor- 
row a  phrase  from  the  popular,  pestilent  patois, 
but  I  transfigure  it  with  its  highest  meaning — if 
she  could  get  a  chance.  How  do  I  know  ?  Just 
as  I  know  that  the  stars  are  now  shining  in  the 
sky,  though  it  is  high  noon.  I  never  saw  a  star  at 
midday,  but  I  know  it  is  the  nature  of  stars  to 
shine  in  the  sky,  and  of  the  sky  to  hold  its  stars. 
Genius  or  fool,  rich  or  poor,  beauty  or  the  beast, 
if  marriage  were  what  it  should  be,  what  God 
meant  it  to  be,  what  even  with  the  world's  present 
possibilities  it  might  be,  it  would  be  the  Elysium, 
the  sole  complete  Elysium,  of  woman,  yes,  and  of 
man.  Greatness,  glory,  usefulness,  happiness,  await 
her  otherwhere  ;  but  here  alone  all  her  powers,  all 
her  being,  can  find  full  play.  No  condition,  no 
character  even,  can  quite  hide  the  gleam  of  the 
sacred  fire  ;  but  on  the  household  hearth  it  joins 
the  warmth  of  earth  to  the  hues  of  heaven.  Bril- 


56  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

liant,  dazzling,  vivid,  a  beacon  and  a  blessing,  her 
light  may  be,  but  only  a  happy  home  blends  the 
prismatic  rays  into  a  soft  serene  whiteness,  that 
floods  the  world  with  divine  illumination.  With- 
fout  wifely  and  motherly  love,  a  part  of  her  nature 
(must  remain  unclosed,  —  a  spring  shut  up,  a  foun- 
tain sealed  ;  but  a  thousand  times  better  that  it 
should  remain  unclosed  than  that  it  should  be 
rudely  rent  open,  or  opened  only  to  be  defiled. 
A  thousand  times  better  that  the  vestal  fire  should 
burn  forever  on  the  inner  shrine  than  that  it 
should  be  brought  out  to  boil  the  pot.  But  the 
pot  must  boil,  you  say,  and  so  it  must ;  but  with 
oak-wood  and  shavings,  not  with  beaten  olive-oil. 
This  it  is  that  I  denounce,  —  not  the  use,  but  the 
abuse,  of  sacred  things.  I  want  girls  to  be  saved 
from  sacrilege.  I  do  not  want  them  to  lay  open 
their  lives  to  spoliation.  I  want  every  woman  to 
fill  her  heart  with  hopes  and  plans  and  purposes  ; 
and  if  a  man  will  marry  her,  let  him  be  so  strong  as 
to  break  down  all  barriers,  check  the  whole  flood- 
tide  of  her  life,  and  sweep  it  around  himself.  If 
u  woman  is  worth  having,  she  is  worth  winning. 
Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel  and  seven 
more,  and  they  seemed  unto  him '  but  a  few  days 
for  the  love  he  had  to  her.  Shiver  and  scatter  the 
wan,  weak  attachments  that  dare  to  call  them- 
selves love.  Scorn  for  this  frothy,  green  whey 
that  stands  for  the  wine  of  life !  Better  that  girls 
should  be  pirated  away  as  the  rough-handed  Ho- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  57 

mans  won  their  Sabine  wives,  than  that  a  man 
should  have  but  to  touch  the  tree  with  his  cane  as 
he  walks  through  the  orchard,  and  down  comes  the 
ready-ripe 'fruit.  In  Von  Fink's  fiery  wooing  of 
Lenore,  I  hear  the  right  trumpet-ring :  "  With  rifle 
and  bullet  I  have  bought  your  stormy  heart."  I 
would  have  a  woman  marry,  not  because  it  is  the 
only  thing  that  offers,  but  because  a  magnificence 
sweeps  by,  in  whose  glorious  sun  her  pale  stars 
faint  and  fade.  Her  soul  shall  be  filled  and  fired 
with  the  heavenly  radiance.  All  her  dross  shall 
be  consumed,  and  all  her  gold  refined.  She  shall 
go  to  her  marriage-feast  as  Zenobia  went  to  Rome, 
crowned  with  flowers,  but  bound  with  golden 
chains,  a  conquered  captive,  and  the  banner  over 
her  shall  be  love.  I  would  have  her  go  obedient,/ 
not  to  the  requirements  of  a  false  and  fatal  mate-j 
rialism,  naming  itself  with  the  names  of  morality 
and  womanhood,  but  to  the  unerring  instincts  of 
her  own  nature.  She  shall  not  fly  to  the  only 
refuge  from  the  vacuum  and  despair  of  her  life ; 
but  her  great  heart  and  her  strong  hands  shall 
be  wrenched  from  their  bent  by  the  mysterious 
force  of  an  irresistible  magnetism.  When  you 
have  a  character  that  can  so  command,  a  love  that 
can  so  control,  you  have  set  up  on  earth  the  pillar? 
of  Heaven,  and  redemption  draweth  nigh. 


V. 


UT  if  the  pursuit  of  a  separate  and  in- 
dependent career  should  not  disincline 
girls  to  marriage,  you  think  it  would 
unfit  them  for  its  duties  ;  that  an  edu- 
cation, an  occupation,  and  an  interest  in  any  other 
than  a  domestic  direction  would  produce  an  indif- 
ferent housewife.  Is  this  necessary  ?  Is  it  even 
probable  ?  Is  there  any  sufficient  reason  why  a 
woman  who  has  trained  her  judgment  in  a  medi- 
cal school,  shall  not  go  into  life,  not  only  with  no 
disadvantage,  but  with  positive  advantage  from 
such  training?  If  her  mind  have  acquired  power 
of  observation,  and  her  fingers  skill  in  execution, 
will  she  not  be  so  much  the  better  prepared  for 
the  duties  of  her  situation,  whatever  they  may  be? 
The  ordering  of  a  family  is  not  like  a  trade,  —  a 
thing  to  be  learned.  It  is  multifarious  and  dis- 
tracting. The  mistress  of  a  household  is  like  the 
sovereign  of  a  free  empire.  She  does  not  need, 
and  cannot  serve,  an  apprenticeship.  The  only 
way  to  prepare  her  for  its  duties  is  to  enlarge  her 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  59 

capacity  to  discharge  them.  She  needs  a  thorough 
education.  Everything  that  helps  to  build  up  mind 
and  body,  —  everything  that  makes  her  healthful, 
hopeful,  cheerful,  spirited,  self-reliant,  energetic, 
strong,  helps  her  to  administer  her  affairs  success- 
fully. A  woman  who  can  do  one  thing  can  do 
another  thing,  and  she  can  do  it  all  the  better  for 
having  done  the  other  one  first ;  so  that  the  pur- 
suit of  a  profession,  instead  of  incapacitating  her 
for  a  domestic  life,  makes  her  better  fitted  for  it. 
If  for  a  year,  or  two  or  three,  she  has  been  study- <- 
ing  the  human  system,  or  the  stars,  or  the  flowers,  1 
or  the  mysteries  of  cloak,  or  bonnet,  or  counter,  or 
mint,  she  can  turn  aside  at  the  beck  of  the  master 
just  as  well  as  if  she  had  been  all  the  while  fritter- 
ing herself  away,  and  she  will  also  be  a  great  deal 
better  worth  beckoning  to.  The  entrance  upon  a 
"  career "  does  not,  as  many  seem  to  think  and 
fear,  prescribe  perpetual  adherence  to  it. 

A  girl  may  have  a  certain  end  in  view,  and 
design  most  clearly  to  follow  it,  and  she  does  fol- 
low it  —  God  bless  her  !  But  Nature  also  has  her 
ends,  and  when  her  unerring  finger  points  in  an- 
other quarter,  "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it," 
be  sure  the  girl  will  go.  Activity  will  never  keep 
her  from  happiness,  but  it  will  keep  her  from  by- 
ways and  stumbling-blocks,  from  the  traps  which 
Nature  never  set,  but  which  a  sentimental  ism,  born 
of  selfishness,  has  put  in  her  path.  And  be  doubly 
sine  of  this :  if  one  or  two  or  a  dozen  years  of  in- 


60  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

duslry  and  resolution  unfit  a  girl  to  be  a  wife,  she 
would  never  have  been  a  prize.  Any  intelligent 
girl  can  learn  household  science  in  six  months, 
and  every  girl  ought  to  have,  and  generally  does 
have,  at  least  six  months'  warning.  Experience 
will  do  the  rest  for  her,  and  do  it  well,  if  she  is 
a  girl  of  sense ;  and  if  not,  nothing  would  have 
helped  the  matter.  One  of  the  best  cooks  I  know 
started  in  life  with  only  a  cabbage  for  capital ;  and 
with  sense  and  spirit,  out  of  that  solitary  cabbage, 
with  whose  proper  management  she  chanced  to  be 
acquainted,  sprang  pies,  puddings,  preserves,  such 
as  it  is  not  well  even  to  think  of  in  war-times. 

So  much  for  that  portion  of  the  objection  which 
is  put  forward  and  has  a  just  foundation.  But  the 
main  part  of  it  is  under  ground.  In  my  opinion, 
the  real  danger  lies  in  quite  the  opposite  quarter 
from  the  one  that  is  sought  to  be  defended.  The 
trouble  is 'not  that  women  do  not  think  enough 
about  household  affairs.  It  is  that  they  think  too 
much.  But  if  one  might  judge  from  the  tenor  of 
public  and  private  talk,  one  would  suppose  that 
cooking  was  the  chief  end  of  woman  and  the  chief 
solace  of  man.  I  distinguish  cooking  above  all  the 
•other  items  of  the  domestic  establishment,  because 
(  find  it  so  distinguished  before  me.  Four  hun- 
dred volumes  of  papyrus,  recovered  from  Hercu- 
laneum,  related  chiefly  to  music,  rhetoric,  and 
cookery.  The  god  of  whom  Paul  told  the  Philip- 
piuns,  even  weeping,  is  worshipped  to-day.  Isaac 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  61 

acted  after  his  kind  when  he  loved  Esau  because 
he  did  eat  of  his  venison  !  To  know  how  to  cook, 
to  keep  the  husband  in  good  humor  with  tempt- 
ing viands,  to  prevent  his  being  annoyed  with 
burnt  meat,  soured  with  heavy  bread,  or  vexed 
by  late  dinners,  is  the  burden  of  a  thousand  ditties 
besides  that  of  our  sarcastic  sonneteer.  Printed 
"  Advice  to  Marriageable  Young  Ladies  "  informs 
them  that  "  a  man  is  better  pleased  when  he 
has  a  good  dinner  upon  his  table,  than  when  his 
wife  talks  good  French."  I  should  like  to  be 
absolute  monarch  of  America  long  enough  to  en- 
act a  decree  that  every  man  who  opens  his  mouth 
to  tell. girls  to  learn  to  make  bread,  shall  live  a 
week  on  putty  and  \vater.  What !  are  girls  then 
to  neglect  to  learn  to  make  bread  ?  By  no  means. 
Nor  to  roast  beef,  nor  to  boil  potatoes.  But  sup- 
pose General  Hooker  should  lead  out  his  whole 
army  against  a  detachment  of  the  Rebels,  and, 
neglecting  Lee  and  Jackson  with  their  myrmi- 
dons, should  expend  all  his  ammunition  and  skill 
on  a  handful  of  the  foe,  would  you  not  adjudge 
him  worthy  of  court-martial  ?  But  the  detachment 
ought  to  be  captured.  Perhaps  it  ought.  Send 
out  a  detachment  and  capture  it.  But  do  not 
waste  your  whole  strength  on  an  awkward  squad, 
and  leave  the  main  body  of  the  enemy  to  ravage 
at  wilL  Defeat  the  latter,  and  the  former  will 
lisappear  of  themselves. 
Now  when  you  bring  out  your  drums  and  beat 


62  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

your  dismal  tattoo  about  learning  to  cook,  you  are 
doing  just  this  ;  you  are  devoting  all  your  strength 
to  the  destruction  of  an  outwork  whose  fall  will 
but  very  remotely  affect  the  citadel.  The  remedy 
for  an  ignorance  of  cookery  is  not  necessarily  a 
knowledge  of  cookery.  What  is  the  reason  that  a 
man  has  cause  to  complain  that  his  wife  does  not 
know  how  to  cook?  Is  it  that  she  devoted  too 
much  of  her  maiden  time  to  teaching,  preaching, 
doctoring,  and  dressmaking  ?  Ten  thousand  to 
one,  no.  It  is  because  she  is  ignorant  or  because 
she  is  silly.  Treat  girls  sensibly.  Educate  their 
observation,  their  perception,  their  judgment.  Give 
them  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  :  and  then  be 
yourself  so  noble  as  to  command  their  respect, 
and  so  amiable  as  to  secure  their  affection,  and 
you  will  have  no  trouble  with  heavy  bread.  If 
you  insist  on  making  women  ignorant  and  silly, 
be  sure  their  ignorance  and  silliness  will  crop  out. 
Thrust  them  down  in  one  place,  and  they  will  im- 
mediately rise  in  another.  Sooner  or  later,  you 
will  prove  the  truth  of  Lord  Burleigh's  assurance 
to  his  son,  and  "  find  to  your  regret  that  there  is 
nothing  more  fulsome  than  a  she-fool." 

But  the  general  direction  of  your  counsel  is 
wrong,  even  supposing  the  immediate  object  at 
which  it  is  aimed  to  be  right.  Its  tendency  is  to 
induce  women  to  give  more  attention  to  cookery 
than  they  now  do;  and  they  already  devote  to  it 
a  great  deal  more  than  they  ought.  They  do  not 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  63 

rook  too  well,  but  too  much.  A  few  mixtures 
fnould  be  better  arranged  than  now,  but  a  great 
many  should  be  left  alone.  Cooking  is  the  chief 
concern  of  a  very  large  number  of  New  England 
wives  and  mothers.  They  spend  the  larger  part 
of  their  ingenuity  in  devising,  and  the  larger 
xjart  of  their  strength  and  skill  and  time  in  pre- 
paring, food  which  is  unnecessary  and  often  hurt- 
fill.  It  never  occurs  to  them  to  alter  their  course. 
They  do  not  think  of  it  as  an  unjust  conjugal  ex- 
action, but  as  a  Divine  allotment.  It  is  not  always 
the  one,  and  seldom  if  ever  the  other ;  but  it  is  a 
custom.  We  are  pre-eminently  an  eating  people. 
Our  women  are  cooking  themselves  to  death,  and 
cooking  the  nation  into  a  materialism  worse  than 
death.  Suppose  you  have  been  boarding  or  visit- 
ing for  a  month  or  two  in  a  stranger  family,  and 
some  one  asks  you  if  they  live  well,  what  do  you 
understand  him  to  mean  ?  Is  he  inquiring  if  they 
are  honorable,  if  they  conduct  their  lives  on  Chris- 
tian principles,  if  they  are  courteous,  and  self- 
respectful  and  self-controlled  ?  Are  they  just  in 
their  dealings,  disinterested  in  their  motives,  pure 
in  word  and  work?  Nothing  is  further  from  his 
thoughts.  He  means  —  and  you  at  once  under- 
stand him  —  Do  they  have  highly-spiced  and  nu- 
merous meats,  much  cake  and  pie,  many  sauces 
and  preserves  ?  To  what  degradation  have  we  de- 
scended !  To  live  well  is  to  eat  rich  food  !  Honor, 
integrity,  refinement,  culture,  are  all  chopped  up 


64  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

into  mince-pie.  Heart  and  soul  are  left  to  shift 
for  themselves,  and  the  guaranty  of  right  and 
righteous  living  is 

"  A  fair  round  belly  with  good  capon  lined." 

In  the  olden  times  there  lived,  we  are  told,  a 
race  of  men  called  Bisclaverets,  who  were  half  man 
and  half  wolf ;  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  were 
half  the  time  man  and  half  the  time  wolf.  Some 
indications  in  our  own  day  lead  us  to  believe  that 
the  race  of  the  Bisclaverets  is  not  wholly  extinct. 
Some  stragglers  must  have  found  their  way  from 
the  shores  of  Bretagne  to  our  Western  wilds,  and 
left  a  posterity  whose  name  is  Legion.  I  copy 
from  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  liberal  of  our 
religious  newspapers  the  following  "  elegant  ex- 
tract," not  original  in  its  columns,  but  adopted 
from  some  other  paper,  with  such  undoubted  in- 
dorsement and  commendation  as  an  insertion 
without  comment  implies  :  — 

"The  business  man  who  has  been  at  work  hard 
all  day,  will  enter  his  house  for  dinner  as  crabbed 
as  a  hungry  bear,  —  crabbed  because  he  is  as  hun- 
gry as  a  hungry  bear.  The  wife  understands  the 
mood,  and,  while  she  says  little  to  him,  is  careful 
not  to  have  the  dinner  delayed.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  children  watch  him  cautiously,  and  do  not  tease 
him  with  questions.  When  the  soup  is  gulped,  and 
he  leans  back  and  wipes  his  mouth,  there  is  an  evi- 
dent relaxation,  and  his  wife  ventures  to  ask  for  tl\3 


A    NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  G5 

news.  When  the  roast  beef  is  disposed  of,  she  pre- 
sumes upon  gossip,  and  possibly  upon  a  jest ;  and 
when,  at  last,  the  dessert  is  spread  upon  the  table, 
all  hands  are  merry,  and  the  face  of  the  husband 
and  father,  which  entered  the  house  so  pinched, 
and  savage,  and  sharp,  becomes  soft,  and  full,  and 
beaming  as  the  face  of  the  round  summer  moon." 

Are  we  talking  about  a  man  or  a  wild  beast  ? 
Is  it  wife  or  female  ?  Are  they  children  or  cubs  ? 
Does  he  wipe  his  mouth  or  lick  his  chops  ?  "  Ven- 
tures to  ask  the  news  "  !  "  Presumes  upon  a  jest " ! 
The  whole  picture  is  disgusting  from  beginning  to 
end.  It  is  the  portraiture  of  sensuality  and  des- 
potism. Hunger  is  not  a  sublime  sensation,  nor  is 
eating  a  graceful  act ;  but  both  are  ordained  of 
God,  and  are  given  us  with  that  broad  blank  mar- 
gin which  almost  invariably  accompanies  His  gifts. 
Religion  and  culture  can  take  up  the  necessity,  and 
work  so  deftly  that  it  shall  become  an  adornment ; 
and  the  ordinance  of  eating  stand  for  the  sunniest 
part  of  life.  The  grossness  of  the  act,  the  mere 
animal  and  mechanical  function  of  furnishing  sup- 
plies, can  be  so  larded  with  wit  and  wisdom,  with 
love  and  good-will,  with  pleasant  talk,  interchange 
of  civilities  and  courtesies,  and  all  the  light,  sweet, 
gentle  amenities  of  life,  that  a  bare  act  becomes 
almost  a  rite.  The  rough  structure  is  veiled  into 
beauty  with  roses  and  lilies  and  the  soft  play  of 
lights  and  shadows.  But  this  paragraph  portrays 
gobbling.  A  woman,  instead  of  pandering  to  it 


66  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

by  service  and  silence,  ought  to  lift  up  her  voice 
and  repress  it  in  its  earliest  stages.     Make  a  man  1 
junderstand  that  he  shall  eat  his  dinner  like  a  gen-/ 
jtleman  or  he  shall  have  no  dinner  to  eat.     If  he 
will  be  crabbed  and  gulp,  let  him  go  down  into  the 
coal-bin  and  have  it  out  alone  ;  but  do  not  let  him 
bring  his  Feejeeism  into  the  dining-room  to  defile 
the  presence  of  his  wife  and  corrupt  the  manners 
of  his  children. 

If  you  think  the  picture  is  overdrawn,  I  pray 
you  to  rejnember  that  I  did  not  draw  it.  It  is  a 
published,  and,  I  think,  a  man's  sketch  of  manhood. 
I  only  take  it  as  I  find  it.  I  do  not  myself  think 
that  materialism  has  attained  quite  that  degree  of 
repulsiveness,  but  it  is  too  near  it.  Eating  is  not 
perpetrated,  but  the  appetite  is  pampered.  If  a 
man  is  able  to  hire  a  cook,  very  wTell.  Cooking  is 
the  cook's  profession  ;  she  ought  to  attain  skill,  and 
her  employer  has  a  right  to  require  it,  and  as  great 
a  variety  and  profusion  of  dishes  as  he  can  furnish 
material  for.  But  if  he  is  not  able  to  hire  a  cook, 
and  must  depend  entirely  upon  his  wife,  the  case 
is  different.  Cooking  is  not  her  profession.  It  is 
only  one  of  the  duties  incident  to  her  station.  It] 
is  incumbent  upon  her  to  spread  a  plentiful  and 
wholesome  table.  It  is  culpable  inefficiency  to 
do  less  than  this.  It  is  palpable  immorality  to  do 
more.  No  matter  how  fond  of  cooking,  or  how 
skilful  or  alert  a  woman  may  be,  she  has  only 
twenty-four  hours  in  her  day,  and  two  hands  for 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  67 

her  work  ;  and  one  woman  who  has  the  sole  care 
of  a  family  cannot,  if  she  has  any  rational  and 
Christian  idea  of  life,  of  personal,  household,  and 
social  duties,  have  any  more  time  and  strength  than 
is  sufficient  for  their  simple  discharge.  Overdoing 
in  one  direction  must  be  compensated  by  underdo- 
ing in  another.  She  cannot  pamper  Peter  without 
pinching  Paul.  Much  that  you  laud  as  a  virtue  I 
lament  as  a  vice.  You  revel  in  the  cakes  and  the 
pastries  and  the  dainties,  and  boast  the  skill  of 
the  housewife  ;  and  indeed  her  marvels  are  featly 
wrought,  sweet  to  the  taste,  and  to  be  desired  if 
honestly  come  by ;  but  if  there  has  been  plunder 
and  extortion,  if  it  is  a  soul  that  flakes  in  the  pas- 
try, if  it  is  a  heart  that  is  embrowned  in  the  gravies, 
if  leisure  and  freshness  and  breadth  of  sympathy 
and  keen  enjoyment  have  been  frittered  away  on 
the  fritters,  and  simmered  away  in  the  sweetmeats, 
and  battered  away  in  the  puddings,  give  me,  I  pray 
you,  a  dinner  of  herbs.  Johnny-cake  was  royal 
fare  in  Wai  den  woods  when  a  king  prepared  the 
banquet  and  presided  at  the  board.  Peacocks' 
tongues  are  but  common  meat  to  peacocks. 

The  pate  de  foie  gras  is  a  monstrous  dish.  A 
goose  is  kept  in  some  warm,  confined  place  that 
precludes  any  extended  motion,  and  fed  with  fat- 
tening food,  so  that  his  liver  enlarges  through  dis- 

O  '  O  O 

ease  till  it  is  considered  fit  to  be  made  into  a  pie, 
—  a  luxury  to  epicures,  but  a  horror  to  any  health- 
ful person.  Just  such  a  goose  is  many  a  woman, 


68  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

confined  by  custom  and  her  consenting  will  in  a 
warm,  narrow  kitchen,  only  instead  of  her  liver 
it  is  her  life  which  she  herself  makes  up  into  pies  ; 
but  the  pastry  which  you  find  so  delicious  seems 
to  me  disease. 

The  ancients  buried  in  urns  the  ashes  of  their 
bodies  :  we  deposit  in  urns  the  ashes  of  our  souls, 
and  pass  them  around  at  the  tea-table. 

Women  not  only  injure  themselves  by  what  they 
neglect,  but  injure  others  by  what  they  perform. 
Such  stress  is  laid  upon  the  commissary  department, 
that  they  lose  discrimination,  and  come  to  think 
that  dainty  morsels  are  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills 
of  the  flesh,  instead  of  being  the  chief  cause  of  most 
of  them.  I  knew  a  young  wife  whose  husband 
used  to  come  down  from  his  study  worn  and  weary 
with  much  brain-work,  his  muscles  flaccid,  his  eyes 
heavy,  his  circulation  sluggish,  and  she  would  come 
up  from  the  kitchen  her  face  all  aglow  with  eager- 
ness and  love  and  cooking-stove  heat,  her  hands 
full  of  abominable  little  messes  which  she  had  been 
plotting  against  him,  reeking  with  butter  and  sugar, 
and  all  manner  of  glorified  greasiness,  —  I  am  hap- 
py to  say  I  do  not  know  by  what  name  she  called 
her  machinations,  but  I  call  them  broiled  dyspep- 
sia, toasted  indigestions,  fricasseed  nightmare,  — 
and  the  poor  husband  would  nibble  here  and  nibble 
there,  sure  of  grim  consequences,  but  loath  to  seem 
a  churl  by  indifference,  and  neither  give  nor  take 
satisfaction.  I  could  bear  his  suffering  with  great 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  GO 

equanimity,  for  there  was  a  poetic  justice  in  it, 
though  he  himself  was  not  a  sinner  above  others, 
nor  yet  so  much  as  many.  If  only  those  men 
who  are  continually  preaching  the  larder  could  be 
forced,  sick  or  well,  to  swallow  every  combination 
which  the  fertile  feminine  brain  can  devise,  and 
the  nimble  feminine  fingers  accomplish,  I  should 
listen  to  their  exhortations  with  the  most  lively 
satisfaction.  But  even  that  would  not  atone  for 
the  female  suffering.  With  what  disconsolate 
countenance  would  my  tender,  anxious  young 
wife  ring  the  bell  and  send  away  the  scarcely- 
diminished  dish-lings,  and  wonder  in  her  fond 
tortured  heart  what  next  she  could  do  to  smooth 
the  wrinkled  brow  and  light  up  the  dull  eyes,  and 
so  revolve  perpetually  in  her  troubled  mind  the 
mysterious  question  that  loomed  up  mystically 
before  us  all  in  our  Mother  Goose  days,  u  Why 
did  n't  Jack  eat  his  supper  ?  " 

Why  ?  O  sweet  and  silly  little  wife  ?  Because 
he  wanted  a  thorough  shaking-up.  Because  mind 
and  body  were  flabby  from  too  long  poring  over  his 
books.  If  you  could  but  have  performed  the  im- 
possible ;  if  you  could  but  have  parted  with  the 
feeble  cant  which  you  had  learned  from  infancy  ; 
if  you  would  but  have  driven  him  out  alike  from 
his  study  and  your  sitting-room,  going  with  him, 
if  such  inducement  became  necessary,  into  the 
fresh  air;  if  you  would  but  have  walked  him,  or 
worked  him,  or  in  some  way  kneaded  him  into 


70  A.  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

firm,  hard  thew  and  sinew,  and  kept  him  out  and 
active  till  he  should  have  got  such  an  appetite 
that  cold  brown  bread  and  molasses  would  have 
seemed  to  him  a  dish  fit  to  set  before  a  king,  you 
would  have  done  him  true  wifely  service.  Then 
you  might  have  come  home  and  fed  him  with  but- 
ter and  sugar  to  your  heart's  content,  —  and  not  to 
the  perpetual  discontent  and  rebellion  of  his  body. 

But  among  all  the  lectures  to  young  wives  or 
old  wives  or  no  wives  at  all,  I  never  heard  or  read 
one  that  counselled  a  woman  to  take  her  husband 
out  walking,  or  rowing,  or  riding,  or  driving,  or 
bowling,  or  do  any  other  sensible  thing.  I  have 
dived  into  oceans  of  nonsense,  but  never  found  the 
pearl. 

Our  New  England  people  considers  itself  to  have 
advanced  much  further  in  civilization  than  the  ab- 
origines, whose  chief  occupation,  according  to  the 
histories,  is  hunting  and  fishing.  But  why  is  it 
barbarous  to  devote  your  life  to  procuring  food, 
and  civilized  to  devote  your  life  to  cooking  it  ?  Of 
the  two,  I  think  I  should  prefer  the  former.  The 
Savage  may  not  present  an  inviting  bill  of  fare ; 
but  the  excitement  of  the  chase,  the  close  contact 
with  nature,  the  wide  freedom  of  sea  and  sky,  the 
grand  play  of  all  the  powers,  the  mighty  strength- 
ening of  all  the  organs,  the  fine  culture  of  the 
senses,  the  health  and  vigor  of  every  nerve  and 
tissue,  the  leap  and  sparkle  of  all  the  springs  of 
life,  this,  surely,  would  be  no  insignificant  compen- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 


71 


sation  :  but  a  continual  pottering  over  gridirons  and 
frying-pans  is  good  for  neither  brain  nor  brawn. 
Civilization  may  quick  upfly  and  kick  the  beam :  I 
would  much  rather  be  a  good  Sioux  Indian  than 
most  New  England  housewives. 


VI. 


HE  much  talk  of  fitness  for  marriage 
leads  one  to  reflect  on  the  advantages 
of  living  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
With  all  the  sewing-machines,  wash- 
ing-machines, wringing-machines,  carpet-sweepers, 
cooking-ranges,  and  the  innumerable  devices  by 
which  labor  is  sought  and  is  supposed  to  be  saved, 
I  do  not  see  that  there  is  any  great  gain.  The  re- 
quirements of  civilized  society  rather  more  than 
keep  abreast  with  the  inventions  of  civilized  inge- 
nuity. Fifty  years  ago  a  bonnet  cost  twenty  dol- 
lars. Now  a  comely  bonnet  can  be  bought  for  ono 
dollar.  But  the  twenty-dollar  bonnet  lasted  ten 
years,  and  the  one-dollar  bonnet  three  months,  so 
that,  notwithstanding  the  superior  cheapness  of 
the  material,  the  item  bonnet  costs  more  money 
than  it  used,  and  vastly  more  time  and  thought. 
A  calico  dress  was  not  deemed  unreasonable  at 
seventy  cents  a  yard.  Lately  it  could  be  had  for 
twelve  and  a  half:  but  at  seventy-five  cents  it  was 
an  heirloom,  while  at  twelve  and  a  half  it  stands 


A   NEW   ATMOSPHERE.  73 

over  the  wash-tub  by  the  second  year,  and  by  the 
third  goes  into  the  rag-bag.  The  lively  sewing- 
machine  runs  up  a  seam  twenty  times  as  swiftly 
as  the  most  lively  fingers  :  but  there  are  twenty 
times  as  many  seams  to  run  up.  Just  as  fast  as 
skill  "  turns  off"  work,  just  so  fast  fashion  turns  it 
on.  Nay,  fashion  in  heaping  up  entirely  outstrips 
ingenuity  in  lowering  the  pile  of  work  ;  so  that 
we  do  not  get  the  benefit  of  our  skill.  The  day 
now  is  no  longer  than  the  day  of  fifty  years  ago. 
The  mother  of  five  children  seems  to  have  no  more 
time  for  educating  her  five  children,  for  enjoying 
and  training  their  opening  lives,  for  studying  their 
characters,  for  associating  with  them  and  acquiring 
their  confidence,  for  planting  unexpected  roses  in 
the  little  flower-plats  of  their  years,  for  sitting  a 
whole  summer  day  with  them  among  the  beauties 
and  wonders  and  delights  of  the  woods,  for  spending 
a  wliole  winter  evening  with  them  in  games  and 
reading,  for  informing  her  own  mind  and  disci- 
plining her  own  heart  and  strengthening  and  beau- 
tifying her  own  body,  for  cultivating  the  possible 
beneficences  of  society,  for  genial  and  growing 
acquaintance  and  sympathy  with  the  poets,  the/ 
philosophers,  the  historians,  and  the  sages,  than  the 
mother  of  five  children  had  fifty  years  ago.  I 
suppose  more  women  now-a-days  know  how"  to 
read  and  write  ;  but  do  they  read  and  write  ?  Of 
the  people  in  your  village,  your  street,  your  sew- 
ing-society :  how  many  do  you  find  who  spend  as 

4 


74  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

much  as  an  hour  a  day  in  reading  Milton,  or  Chau* 
cer,  or  Spenser,  or  Tennyson,  or  Mrs.  Browning  ? 
How  many  are  there  who  are  familiar  with  Hume, 
or  Robertson,  or  Macaulay,  or  Motley,  or  Palfrey  ? 
How  many  have  lingered  with  delight  over  the 
pages  of  Lord  Bacon,  or  Jeremy  Taylor,  or  John 
Stuart  Mill?  How  many  know  the  relation  be- 
tween a  cat  and  a  tiger,  or  what  are  the  ingredi- 
ents of  buttermilk,  or  why  yeast  makes  bread  rise,  or 
how  the  heat  of  the  oven  works,  or  whether  a  clo- 
verhead  has  anything  to  do  with  a  marrowfat  pea  ? 
How  many  are  interested  to  peer  into  the  myste- 
ries of  the  heavens  above  or  the  earth  beneath  or 
the  waters  under  the  earth  ?  How  many  ever  heard 
of  the  Areopigitica  or  the  Witena-gemot,  or  discern 
any  connection  between  Runnymede  and  Fort 
Sumter,  or  have  the  faintest  opinion  as  to  whether 
Runnymede  is  a  man  or  a  mouse  ?  How  many  can 
tell  you  whether  the  Reformation  was  a  revelation 
confronting  a  superstition  or  a  fruitful  branch  graft- 
ed upon  a  barren  olive-tree,  or  an  old  religion 
throwing  off  the  layers  of  acquired  corruption? 
How  many  understand  the  origin  and  bearings  of 
Calvinism  or  the  Nicene  Creed  or  the  Pauline 
Epistles  ?  I  speak,  you  see,  not  of  things  which 
have  passed  away  leaving  only  a  slender  and  hid- 
den thread  of  connection,  but  of  those  which  still 
touch  life  at  many  points.  The  great  boast  of  the 
present  day  is  the  dissemination  of  knowledge : 
but  knowledge  is  trash  if  it  is  not  assimilated  into 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  75 

wisdom.  Knowledge  which  is  simply  plastered  on 
to  the  outside  of  the  soul  and  does  not  chemically 
combine  to  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  soul's 
substance,  produces  an  effect  little  better  than  gro- 
tesque. Names  and  dates  may  store  the  memory ; 
but  why  have  the  memory  stored  if  you  do  not 
use  its  treasures  ?  What  better  off  am  I  for  hav- 
ing a  heap  of  isolated  facts  in  my  lumber-room  if 
I  have  nothing  for  those  facts  to  do  ?  I  may  know 
in  what  year  the  battle  of  Hastings  was  fought, 
but  unless  I  can  locate  that  battle  otherwhere  than 
in  geography  and  chronology,  I  might  as  well  have 
committed  to  the  charge  of  my  memory  the  youth- 
ful facts  of 

"Onery  Twoery  ickery  see, 
Halibut  crackibut  pendalee. 
Pin  pon  musket  John, 
Triddle  traddlecome  Twenty-one." 

Bricks  and  boards  are  neither  shelter  from  wind 
nor  shade  from  sun.  It  is  only  when  all  are  fitly 
framed  together  into  the  strength  and  sweetness 
of  spirit  that  they  become  the  temple  of  the  living 
God,  whereinto  Shekinah  shall  come.  We  talk 
about  the  universal  circulation  of  newspapers,  but 
sometimes  it  seems  to  me  that  newspapers  are  only 
an  enormous  expansion  of  village  gossip.  Now  if 
a  murder  is  committed  in  New  York  we  hear  of 
it,  whereas  formerly  we  did  not  know  it  unless  it 
were  committed  in  the  next  town.  But  such 
knowledge  we  could  very  readily  dispense  with. 


76  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

Is  anything  added  to  the  worth  of  life  by  learning 
that  Bridget  McArthy  has  been  fined  five  dollars 
and  costs  for  breaking  Ellen  Maloney's  windows. 
In  the  old  wars,  it  was  three  weeks  after  a  victory 
was  gained  before  you  heard  of  it ;  now  you  hear 
of  it  six  months  before  the  battle  is  fought,  and 
after  all  it  turns  out  to  be  no  victory,  but  a  master- 
piece of  strategy.*  What  I  wish  to  know  is  this : 
does  the  constant  interflow  of  currents  really  deep- 
en and  broaden  the  channel  of  life  ?  Are  women 
any  stronger  of  will,  firmer  of  purpose,  broader  of 
view,  sounder  of  judgment,  than  they  used  to  be? 
Can  they  front  fortune  with  serener  brow,  unawed 
by  her  malice,  unflattered  by  her  promise,  un- 
moved by  her  caprice  ?  Are  they  any  more  in- 
dependent of  the  circumstances  of  life,  any  more 
concentrated  in  its  essence  ?  Do  they  think  more 
deeply,  love  more  nobly,  live  more  spiritually? 
Are  they  any  more  divorced  from  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life ; 
any  more  wedded  to  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things 
are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report  ? 

I  think  we  are  in  a  transition-state.  The  in- 
creased facilities  of  labor  are  improvements,  and 
we  shall  by  and  by  reap  the  fruits  of  them ;  but 

*  Heaven  be  praised  that  the  course  of  events  has  blunted  the 
point  of  this  sentence. 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  77 


we  have  hardly  yet  done  so.  We  ha^  iassoed 
our  wild  horse,  but  we  have  not  harnessed  him. 
He  shows  us  wonderful  freaks  of  strength,  but  he 
drags  us  quite  as  often  as  we  drive  lima.  "  Sweet 
Puck  "  has  been  caught,  and  made  to  pat  his  girdle 
round  about  the  earth  in  forty  minutes  ;  in 

"  one  night,  ere  glimpse  of  morn, 
His  shadowy  flail  hath  threshed  the  corn, 
That  ten  day-laborers  could  not  end." 

But  he  is  not  yet  tamed  down  into  a  trustworthy 
domestic  drudge.  If  he  does  not  actually  trans- 
mute himself  into  a  Robin  Goodfellow,  that  bootless 
makes  the  breathless  housewife  churn,  and  the 
drink  to  bear  no  barm,  and  mislead  night-wander- 
ers, he  yet  annuls  his  work,  shutting  the  eyes  of 
the  ten  day-laborers  so  that  they  do  not  gain  rest  for 
his  interference  ;  his  earth-girdle  binds  no  bundle 
of  myrrh  for  the  well-beloved.  Our  great  diffusion 
of  knowledge  has  not  given  us  corresponding  mas 
tery.  Our  knives  are  sharper,  but  we  only  whittle. 
Knowledge  is  poured  abroad,  but  it  is  not  absorbed, 
Yet  the  hour  approaches.  By  and  by,  out  of  this 
wishy-washy  chaos,  slowly  shall  arise  the  coast-line 
of  a  new  continent  whereon  the  redeemed  shall 
walk  :  meanwhile,  do  not  let  us  deceive  ourselves. 
The  millennium  is  not  yet  come.  We  are  scarcely 
beyond  the  multiplication-  table  of  our  mathemat- 
ics. We  are  blind  and  blundering,  and  for  all 
our  skill  and  science,  we  stumble  through  life  but 
little  wiser  than  our  fathers.  We  have  the  swift, 


78  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

clean  stove-oven  for  the  cumbrous  old  bake-kettle, 
but  meanwhile  we  have  lost  the  fireside,  and  have 
found  no  substitute  ;  and  a  man's  life  lies  not  in 
ovens  or  bake-kettles,  but  in  firesides. 

This  truth  needs  to  be  engraven  on  our  brains 
and  hearts  with  a  pen  of  iron  and  the  point  of  a 
diamond.  The  soul  is  the  king  and  not  the  servant 
of  the  body.  Every  device,  every  invention,  every 
measure,  that  does  not  subserve  the  interests  of  the 
soul,  is  worthless.  Every  invention  that  may  sub- 
serve those  interests,  but  stops  short  of  such  subser- 
viency, stops  so  far  short  of  its  goal.  If  the  cook- 
ing-range only  makes  that  mince-pie  be  eaten  once 
a  day  instead  of  once  a  year ;  if  steam-power  only 
causes  that  fine  wheat-bread  shall  take  the  place 
of  coarse  corn-bread  ;  if  sewing-machines  are  going 
to  give  women  more  tucks  to  their  skirts,  more 
flounces  to  their  gowns,  more  dresses  to  their 
wardrobes,  and  not  more  hours  to  their  day,  we 
might  just  as  well  be  without  the  sewing-machines 
and  the  cooking-ranges  and  the  steam-power.  Is 
a  woman  any  better,  or  any  better  off,  for  having 
six  gowns  where  her  mother  had  three  ?  Is  she 
not  worse  off?  She  can  wear  but  one  at  a  time, 
and  she  is  expending  brain-power  and  heart-power, 
and  lifting  the  incidents  of  life  into  the  sphere  of 
its  essentials.  There  are  women  who  buy  dresses, 
and  make  them,  and  hang  them  up  in  their  closets, 
there  to  remain  till  the  fashion  changes,  and  the 
dress  has  to  be  re-made  without  having  been  once 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  79 

worn.  O  terrible  emptiness  of  life  which  this  sig- 
nalizes !  O  wanton  and  wicked  waste  of  priceless 
treasures !  What  shall  be  said  in  the  day  when 
God  maketh  inquisition  ?  I  wage  no  war  against 
the  esthetics  of  life  ;  but  I  do  protest  that  they 
shall  be  means  and  not  ends.  Let  richness  drape 
the  form,  and  variety  crown  the  board,  and  luxury 
fill  the  house,  if  so  be  you  do  not  wrong  the  king, 
the  Master.  There  need  be  no  other  limitation. 
Wrong  to  one's  self  involves  and  implies  all  other 
wrong.  Nothing  human  is  foreign  to  any  man. 
Nothing  personal  is  foreign  to  humanity.  You 
cannot  defraud  yourself  of  your  birthright  with- 
out defrauding  all  those  to  whom  your  birthright 
might  bring  blessings.  The  keenest  barb  of  your 
injustice  to  another  pierces  your  own  breast. 

But  the  larger  number  of  New  England  families 
earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  and 
must  sacrifice  the  one  or  the  other,  —  the  soul  or 
the  body.  They  cannot  command  both  luxury 
and  life ;  and  they  choose  —  which  ?  Look  around 
and  answer.  How  many  houses  do  you  know 
that  have  no  carpets  on  the  floors,  no  cushions  in 
the  chairs,  no  paper  on  the  walls,  no  silks  in  the 
wardrobes,  no  china  in  the  closets,  but  plenty  of 
books  in  the  library ;  a  harp,  a  piano,  a  violin,  in 
ono  corner,  an  easel,  a  box  of  crayons  in  another ; 
an  aqt.arium  by  the  window,  a  camp-stool  in  the 
cupboard,  a  fishing-rod  on  the  shelf,  a  portfolio  on 
the  table  ;  where  pies  and  fries  and  cakes  and 


80  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

preserves  and  pickles  and  puddings  seldom  come  ; 
where  flounces  and  velvets  and  feathers  and  em- 
broideries are  unseen,  but  where  the  walls  are 
adorned  with  drawings  from  the  mother's  own 
hands,  with  bouquets,  finely  selected,  pressed  and 
arranged  by  the  daughters ;  with  cabinets  of  min- 
erals gathered,  classified,  and  labelled  by  the  sons  ; 
and  fresh  flowers  from  the  garden,  cultivated  and 
culled  by  the  -father ;  where  the  homely  fare  is 
seasoned  with  Attic  salt ;  where  wit  and  wisdom 
and  sprightliness  and  fun  and  heart's-ease  make 
the  simple,  wholesome,  and  plentiful  meal  a  fit 
banquet  for  gods  ;  where  work  is  work,  and  not 
simply  labor  ;  where  rest  is  change,  and  not  simply 
torpidity ;  where  the  heart  is  rich  in  love,  and  the 
head  rich  in  lore,  and  intellect  and  affection  go 
hand  in  hand  ;  where  the  inmates  are  not  the 
creatures  of  the  house,  but  the  house  is  the  dear 
handiwork  of  the  inmates  ;  where  they  derive  no 
lustre  from  their  dwelling,  but  shine  all  through  it 
with  such  sweet,  soft  lights,  that  elegance  waits 
upon  their  footsteps,  beauty  lingers  upon  their 
brows,  every  spot  which  they  tread  is  enchanted 
ground,  every  room  which  they  enter  is  the  au- 
dience-chamber of  a  king.  On  the  other  hand, 
how  many  houses  do  you  know  where  everything 
is  in  abundance  except  that  which  alone  gives 
abundance  its  value  ?  Where  moss-soft  carpets 
and  heavy  curtains  and  gilded  cornices  and  silver 
and  china  and  sumptuous  fare  make  a  glittering 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  81 

pageant,  but  work  and  worry  and  weariness,  or 
frivolous  pleasures  and  frivolous  interests,  empty 
life  of  all  its  priceless  possessions.  How  many  do 
you  know  where  neither  wealth  nor  worth  reigns  ? 
Where  hard,  grinding,  pinching  toil  is  all  that  the 
evening  and  the  morning  have  to  give,  and  every- 
thing lovely  to  the  eye  and  pleasant  to  the  soul  is 
crushed  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  mill- 
stones ?  How  many  young  couples  think  they  . 
could  begin  housekeeping  without  a  carpet  for  the* 
parlor  floor  ?  How  many  think  of  providing  that 
parlor  with  a  score  of  the  rich,  ripe,  mellow  Eng- 
lish classics  ?  But  to  the  end  of  the  days,  the 
authors  will  be  a  joy  and  strength  and  consola- 
tion, and  the  carpet  will  be  only  a  dusty  woollen 
rag.  No,  no  ;  we  cannot  give  up  our  trappings. 
Such  is  the  poverty  of  our  life,  and  we  may  not 
uncover  its  nakedness.  We  must  have  jewels  and 
gold  to  hide  our  squalor  and  our  leanness.  It  is 
tinsel  or  nothing.  Take  away  our  fine  clothes, 
our  fine  furniture,  our  much  eating  and  drinking, 
and  what  is  left  ?  True,  —  what  is  left  ?  Va- 
cancy and  desolation.  Suppose  the  work  an<? 
worry  to  be  suddenly  abrogated  to  the  degree  thaf 
the  thousands  of  harassed  women  who  toil  with 
broom  or  needle  or  dish-cloth  or  kneading-trough 
from  morning  till  night  should  suddenly  find  on 
their  hands  four  hours  every  day  of  leisure,  — 
leisure  that  absolutely  need  be  filled  up  by  no 
family  knitting,  mending,  or  oversight,  —  would  it 

4*  F 


82  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

$fr 

be  a  boon  ?  In  many  cases  I  greatly  fear  not 
After  the  first  luxury  of  utter  rest  from  strenuous 
work,  I  greatly  fear  that  that  four  hours  would  be 
the  dullest  and  dreariest  part  of  the  day,  and  its 
close  more  gladly  welcomed  than  its  commence- 
ment. But  this  only  shows  the  need,  not  the  im- 
possibility, of  reformation.  If  it  has  come  to  this, 
that  we  know  not  what  to  do  with  ourselves,  shall 
we  go  on  providing  toys,  or  shall  we  turn  about 
and  straightway  learn  self-direction  ?  Is  it  so  that 
we  must  fill  our  lives  with  husks,  because  we  have 
fed  on  them  so  long  that  we  have  no  relish  for 
nourishing  food  ?  Have  we  so  held  in  abeyance 
our  spiritual  forces  that  they  have  lost  their  life  ? 
Have  we  so  given  ourselves  to  our  grosser  uses, 
that  they  have  usurped  the  throne,  and  shall  we 
now  make  no  effort  to  depose  them  and  restore 
the  rightful  lord  ?  Shall  we  go  on  forming  and 

O  c5  o 

frocking  our  wax  dolls,  and  give  no  heed  to  the 
marble  which  it  is  our  life-work  to  fashion  into  the 
image  and  likeness  of  God  ?  Better  Romulus  and 
Remus,  suckled  by  a  wolf,  than  our  puny  nurslings 
of  conventionality  !  O  for  men  and  women  with 
blood  in  their  veins,  and  muscles  in  their  bodies, 
and  brains  in  their  skulls,  —  men  and  women  who 
believe  in  their  manhood  and  their  womanhood  ! 
who  will  be  as  valiant,  as  aggressive,  as  enduring 
in  peace  as  they  are  showing  themselves  in  war, 
who  dare  stand  erect,  who  will  walk  their  own 
paths,  who  brave  solitudes,  who  see  things  and  not 


A   NEW  A  TMO SPHERE.  83 

the  traditions  of  things,  who  will  blow  away,  with 
one  honest  breath,  our  shabby  gew-gaw  finery  ! 
America  was  founded  on  the  rights  of  man  :  why 
do  we  set  our  affections  on  silks  and  satins  ?  Why 
entangle  our  young  limbs  with  the  fetters  of  an 
old  civilization,  golden  though  they  be  ?  Never 
had  any  nation  such  opportunity  as  ours.  Here  is 
the  race-course  ready,  the  battle-ground  prepared. 
It  needs  only  that  we  be  swift  and  strong.  There 
are  no  morasses  of  old  prejudice  to  beguile  our  feet, 
no  tangle  of  old  growths  to  retard  our  progress. 
have  no  institutions  to  fight  against :  all  our  in- 
stitutions  fight  with  us.  No  garter,  no  ribbon,  no 
courtly  presentation,  is  demanded  as  our  stamp  of 
rank ;  the  badge  of  each  man's  order  is  set  on 
his  brow  and  breast.  Worth  needs  not  to  have 
flowed  down  through  musty  ages  if  k  would  re- 
ceive its  meed  ;  every  man  bears  his  seal  direct 
from  God.  Humanity  is  more  accounted  of  than 
a  coat  of  arms.  We  have  only  to  be  noble,  arid 
we  belong  at  once  to  the  nobility.  Itjs  _ourselves 
alone  that  will  fail  if  there  be  failure  ;  not  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  for  us  to  rise  to  the  height  of  the 
great  argument.  It  is  only  that  we  reverence 
ourselves,  that  wTe  esteem  man  as  of  greater  mark 
than  his  meat  or  his  raiment.  Give  us  full  and 
free  development.  Tear  away  these  gilded  fetters, 
and  let  the  children  of  God  have  free  course  to 
run  and  be  glorified.  Throw  off  allegiance  to 
trifles,  and  with  the  heart  believe,  and  with  the 


84  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

mouth  make  confession,  and  with  the  upright  life 
attest:  There  is  no  God  but  God. 

This  can  be  done  only  when  women  and  men 
will  work  together  to  the  same  end.  It  is  not  to 
be  done  by  stripping  away  the  restraints  of  fashion 
and  society  and  leaving  life  bare  of  its  proprieties. 
Deformity  is  not  lovely  by  being  exposed.  What 
we  are  to  do  is  to  supplant  those  restraints  by  the 
gentle  growths  of  a  larger  and  finer  culture ;  to 
replace  meagreness  with  rounded  beauty  ;  to  make 
the  life  so  rich  and  full  that  all  else  shall  seem  poor 
in  comparison  ;  to  show  it  so  fair  and  fertile  that 
every  luxury  shall  seem  but  its  natural  outgrowth, 
its  proper  adornment ;  to  make  the  soul  so  simply 
dominant  as  to  give  their  laws  to  fashion  and  so- 
ciety instead  of  receiving  laws  from  them,  and  so 
have  fashion  and  society  for  its  nimble  servitors  in- 
stead of  being  itself  their  creature  and  slave.  Is 
it  not  so  now  ?  Who  dares  bend  social  life  to  his 
uses  ?  Who  dares  run  counter  to  its  caprices  ? 
Who  dares  stand  on  his  own  dignity  and  defy  its 
frown  or  sneer  ?  But,  you  say,  this  adaptation  of 
one's  self  to  others  is  what  Christianity  requires. 
This  self-seeking,  this  self-elevation,  is  directly  op- 
posed to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  which  demands 
that  every  one  seek  not  his  own,  but  the  things 
which  are  another's.  Not  at  all.  You  can  in  nc 
other  way  benefit  your  generation  than  through 
your  own  heart  and  life.  Can  a  stream  rise  higher 
than  its  fountain  ?  Can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  85 

good  fruits  ?  The  Apostle  says  :  Let  no  man  seek 
his  own,  but  every  man  another's  wealth.  Does 
that  mean  that  a  farmer  must  not  plough  his  own 
field,  or  plant  his  own  corn,  or  hoe  his  own  pota- 
toes, but  go  over  to  till  his  neighbor's  farm  and 
leave  his  own  fallow  ?  But  it  is  written,  "  He  that 
provideth  not  for  his  own  house  hath  denied  the 
faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel,"  and  common 
sense  need  not  be  propped  up  by  revelation,  for  it 
stands  firmly  on  the  same  ground.  You  say  a 
woman  must  not  be  thinking  of  herself,  her  own 
growth  and  good  all  the  time.  So  do  I.  But  is  5 
she  to  obtain  and  exhibit  self-forge tfulness  by  self-  s 
culture,  or  self-neglect  ?  Will  you  be  most  likely 
to  forget  your  head  by  thoroughly  combing  and 
brushing  your  hair  every  morning,  or  by  brushing 
it  not  at  all  ?  Does  not  health  consist  in  having 
your  organs  in  such  a  condition  that  you  do  not 
know  you  have  organs  ?  A  dyspeptic  man  is  the 
most  subjective  person  in  the  world.  He  thinks 
more  about  himself  in  a  week  than  a  well  person 
does  in  a  year.  The  true  way  for  women  and  men 
to  be  thoroughly  self-forgetful,  is  to  be  so  thor- 
oughly self-cultured,  so  healthy,  so  normal,  so 
perfect,  that  all  they  have  to  do  is  their  work. 
Themselves  are  perfectly  transparent.  No  head- 
aches and  heartaches  interpose  between  themselves 
and  their  duties.  They  are  not  forced  back  to 
concentrate  their  interest  on  a  torpid  liver,  or  tu- 
bercled  lungs.  They  are  not  wasting  their  power 


86  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

by  working  in  constant  jar  and  clash.  They  are 
at  full  liberty  to  bring  means  to  bear  on  ends. 
And  just  in  proportion  as  sound  minds  have  sound 
bodies,  will  people  be  able  to  forget  themselves  and 
do  good  to  others. 

Now  —  the  connection  between  some  of  my 
paragraphs  may  be  a  little  underground,  but  it 
is  always  there.  If  you  don't  quite  see  it,  you 
must  jump.  If  I  should  stop  to  say  everything,  I 
should  never  get  through.  I  am  not  sure  I  shall, 

as  it  is  —  now,  such  has  been  the  amount  of  glut- 

.      .  .    . 

tony,  and  all  manner  of  frivolity  and  materialism, 

indirectly  but  strenuously  inculcated  by  literature, 
that  we  are  arrived  at  a  point  where  they  are 
almost  the  strongest  grappling-hooks  between  the 
sexes.  Understand :  I  am  not  saying  that  dress 
is  frivolity.  Dress  is  development.  A  woman's 
dress  is  not  her  first  duty,  but  it  follows  closely  on 
first  duty's  heels.  She  should  dress  so  as  to  be 
grateful  to  her  husband's  eye,  I  grant,  nay,  I  en- 
join :  and  he  is  under  equally  strong  obligations  to 
dress  so  as  to  be  grateful  to  her  eye.  But  this  is 
scarcely  a  matter  of  expense.  It  need  not  cost, 
appreciably,  more  to  be  neat  and  tasteful  than  it 
does  to  be  dowdy  and  slouching.  But,  I  have 
heard  women  say,  variety  in  dress  is  necessary  in 
order  that  a  husband  may  not  be  wearied.  But 
does  a  man  ever  think  of  having  several  winter 
coats  or  summer  waistcoats,  so  that  his  wife  may 
not  weary  of  him  ?  Does  she  ever  think  of  being 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  87 

tired  of  seeing  one  hat  till  it  begins  to  look  shabby  ? 
And  if  a  man  buys  his  clothes  and  wears  them 
according  to  his  needs,  —  which  is  quite  right, — 
wjiy  shall  not  a  woman  do  the  same  ?  Is  there 
any  law  or  gospel  for  forcing  a  woman  to  be  pleas- 
ing to  her  husband,  while  the  husband  is  left  to  do 
that  which  is  right  in  his  own  eyes  ?  Or  are  the 
visual  organs  of  a  man  so  much  more  exquisitely 
arranged  than  those  of  a  woman,  that  special  adap- 
tations must  be  made  to  them,  while  a  woman  may 
see  whatever  happens  to  be  a  la  mode  ?  Or  has  a 
man's  dress  intrinsically  so  much  more  beauty  and 
character  than  a  woman's,  that  less  pains  need  be 
taken  to  make  it  charming  ? 

But  granting  to  variety  all  the  importance  that 
is  claimed  for  it,  are  we  using  the  lever  to  advan- 
tage ?  Suppose  the  gown  is  changed  every  day, 
while  the  face  above  it  never  varies,  or  varies  only 
from  one  vapidity  to  another,  and  what  is  gained  ? 
If  variety  is  the  desideratum,  why  not  attempt  it  in 
the  direction  in  which  variety  is  spontaneous,  re- 
sultant, and  always  delightful  ?  You  may  flit  from 
brown  merino  to  blue  poplin,  and  from  blue  poplin 
to  black  alpaca,  and  be  queen  of  all  that  is  tire- 
some still.  But  enlarge  every  day  the  horizon  of 
your  heart :  be  tuneful  on  Monday  with  the  birds  ; 
be  fragrant  on  Tuesday  among  your  roses  ;  be 
thoughtful  on  Wednesday  with  the  sages  ;  be 
chemical  on  Thursday  over  your  bread-trough  ; 
be  prophetic  on  Friday  with  history ;  be  aspiring 


88  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

on  Saturday  in  spite  of  broom  and  duster  ;  be  lib- 
eral and  catholic  on  Sunday  :  be  fresh  and  genial 
and  natural  and  blooming  with  the  dews  that  are 
ready  to  gather  on  every  smallest  grass-blade  of 
life,  and  a  pink-sprigged  muslin  will  be  new  for  a 
whole  season,  yes,  and  half  a  dozen  of  them.  Take 
example  from  the  toad :  swallow  your  dress ;  not  pre- 
cisely in  the  same  sense,  but  as  effectually.  Over- 
power, subordinate  your  dress,  till  it  shall  be  only  a 
second  cuticle,  not  to  be  distinguished  from  yourself, 
but  a  natural  element  of  your  universal  harmony. 
What  are  you  going  to  wear  to  church  this  sum- 
mer? I  say  church,  because  I  am  speaking  now 
to  people  whose  best  dress  is  their  Sunday  dress. 
I  am  not  writing  for  the  Newport  and  Niagara 
frequenters,  who  know  no  currency  smaller  than 
gold  eagles.  You  will  not  have  many  new  clothes 
because  it  is  "  war-times,"  but  you  must  have 
a  silk  mantle ;  that  will  cost  fifteen  dollars.  You 
could  have  bought  one  last  summer  for  ten  dol- 
lars, but  silk  is  now  higher.  You  will  have  a 
barege  dress,  which,  with  the  increased  price  of 
linings  and  trimmings  and  making,  will  cost  before 
it  is  ready  to  be  worn  fifteen  more.  Your  gloves 
will  be  a  dollar  and  a  half,  and  your  bonnet,  whit- 
ened and  newly  trimmed  with  last  summer's  rib- 
bon, will  be  three  dollars  or  so.  The  whole  cost 
will  be  about  thirty-five  dollars.  But  suppose,  in- 
stead of  a  barege  gown  and  silk  shawl,  you  had 
bought  a  pretty  gingham  and  had  it  made  in  the 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  89 

same  way,  dress  and  mantle  alike,  and  had  taken 
that  for  your  summer  outfit ;  and  had  substituted 
for  your  kid  gloves  a  pair  of  Lisle-thread  at  sixty- 
two  cents.  The  gingham  will  last  longer  than  the 
barege,  and  will  be  good  for  more  uses  after  it  is 
outworn  as  a  dress.  It  will  last  as  long  in  the 
mantle  as  the  shape  of  the  mantle  will  be  fashion- 
able, and  then  it  will  make  over  as  economically, 
and  into  a  larger  number  of  articles.  The  Lisle- 
thread  gloves  will  last  as  long  as  the  kid,  and  will 
be  much  better  on  the  whole,  because  they  will 
wash.  "  But  I  should  make  a  figure,  walking  up 
the  broad  aisle  in  a  gingham  mantilla  !  "  Be  sure 
you  would,  and  a  very  pretty  figure  too.  For  you 
look,  in  it,  perfectly  fresh  and  tidy ;  and  because 
you  have  not  been  fagged  and  fretted  with  its  great 
cost  you  will  be  quite  happy  and  pleased,  and  that 
pleasure  will  beam  out  in  your  face  and  figure,  and 
your  young,  elastic  tread  ;  and  there  is  not  a  man 
in  church  who  will  suspect  that  everything  is  not 
precisely  as  it  should  be.  Men  judge  in  generals, 
not  in  particulars  ;  and  the  few  who  are  conversant 
with  minutia3,  and  look  beyond  the  facts  of  becom- 
ingness  or  unbecomingness  into  the  question  of 
texture  and  fabric,  are  such  miscroscopic  sort  of 
men  that  you  do  not  value  their  opinion  one  way 
or  the  other.  You  are  triumphant  so  far  as  the 
men  are  concerned. 

The  women  will  not  let  you  off  so  easily.    Mrs. 
Judkins  will  think  you  are  "  very  odd" ;  but  how 


90  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

much  better  to  be  oddly  right  than  evenly  wrong ! 
Airs.  Jenkins  will  call  it  real  mean,  when  you  are  as 
well  able  to  dress  decently  as  she  is  !  But  you  are 
the  very  plant  and  flower  of  decency.  Mrs.  Per- 
kins will  hate  to  see  people  try  to  be  different  from 
other  folks.  Ah !  Mrs.  Perkins,  when  the  vapor 
from  your  heated  face  goes  down  to-morrow  meet- 
ing the  vapor  that  comes  steaming  up  from  your 
foaming  tub,  will  you  find  it  any  consolation  for 
your  heat  and  fatigue  that  you  went  to  church  yes- 
terday and  are  broiling  over  your  wash-tub  to-day 
"  like  other  folks."  Meanwhile  you,  by  your  ging- 
ham, have  saved  ten  dollars.  Ten  dollars  !  I  am 
lost  in  amazement  when  I  think  of  the  good  that 
may  be  accomplished  with  ten  dollars !  For  ten 
dollars  you  can  hire  a  washerwoman  all  summer 
and  save  —  absolutely  add  to  your  life  six  hours 
every  Monday  for  three  months  ;  lock  at  the  read- 
ing,  the  writing,  the  conversation,  the  enjoyment 
that  can  be  crowded  into  an  hour,  and  then  multi- 
ply it  by  seventy-five,  and  say  whether  your  ging- 
ham dress  be  not  a  very  robe  of  royalty.  And 
besides  the  good  you  do  yourself,  and  the  good  that 
will  shine  from  you  upon  all  around  you,  you  will 
be  helping  to  solve  the  great  problem  of  the  age  : 
you  will  be  helping  to  give  employment  to  the 
thousands  of  women  who  are  perishing  for  lack  of 
something  to  do,  and  dragging  society  down  with 
them.  You  will  be  setting  supply  and  demand  face 
to  face.  If  you  could  but  induce  a  few  of  your 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  91 

neighbors  to  join  you,  —  which  they  will  be  glad 
to  do  when  they  see  how  happy  and  fresh  it  makes 
you,  —  the  employment  you  would  furnish  would 
comfortably  support  some  destitute  unmarried 
woman,  or  some  childless  widow,  and  go  far  to- 
wards providing  bread  and  butter,  perhaps  shoes 
and  stockings,  possibly  spelling-books,  to  a  family 
of  children.  There  are,  possibly,  as  many  women 
who  need  to  do  more  than  they  are  doing  as  there 
are  who  need  to  do  less,  and  you  will  be  helping 
to  restore  or  create  the  desired  equilibrium.  Or, 
if  you  choose  instead,  ten  dollars  will  take  your  rus- 
tic little  ones  into  the  city  to  stock  and  startle  their 
minds  with  ideas  from  the  navy-yard,  the  museum, 
the  aquarial  gardens,  the  picture-galleries  ;  or  it  will 
take  your  civic  little  ones  into  the  country  and  set 
them  down  in  the  midst  of  orchards  and  blooms 
and  birds,  and  all  the  pure  sweet  influences  of  long 
summer  days.  It  will  give  you  four  or  five  drives 
with  your  husband  and  children,  —  drives  that  in- 
volve fascinating  white  baskets  ;  napkins  spread  out 
on  the  grass,  hungry  mouths,  chattering  tongues, 
and  oh  !  such  happy  hearts.  Or  you  can  go  to  the 
beach  and  hear  the  little  monkeys  scream  for  joy 
and  terror  in  the  rushing,  lapping,  embracing  waves, 
and  see  them  roll  over  and  over  in  the  soft  sand, 
and  gather  untold  wealth  of  worthless  shells  and 
heaps  of  shining  sand  for  back-yard  gardens.  For 
ten  dollars  you  can  buy  picture-books,  long-desired 
toys,  flowers  and  flower-stands  for  winter,  roots  for 


92  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

bedding  in  summer,  and  still  have  enough  left  to 
give  an  extra  lemon  to  a  score  of  wounded  soldiers 
in  a  hospital  ward.  You  can  buy  yourself  leisure  to 
become  acquainted  with  your  children  and  to  make 
them  acquainted  with  the  brightest  phases  of  your- 
self. You  can  put  into  their  lives  such  sunny 
memories  as  no  after  bitterness  can  efface ;  such 
sunny  memories  as  shall  wreathe  you  with  a  glory 
in  the  coming  years  when  your  head  is  laid  low  in 
the  grave.  O  my  friend,  I  can  almost  see  the  light 
of  the  celestial  city  shining  through  that  ten  dollars, 
—  and  you  talk  about  a  silk  cape  ! 

Mind,  I  counsel  no  penuriousness,  no  mean  re- 
trenchment for  accumulation,  no  domestic  pillage, 
no  mere  selfish  gratification.  I  suggest  intelligent 
and  high-minded  economy  for  the  purpose  of  lib- 
eral expenditure.  I  would  take  in  sail  where  only 
sensualism  and  ostentation  blow ;  but  I  would  spread 
every  rag  of  canvas  to  catch  the  smallest  breath  of 
an  enlarged  and  Christian  happiness.  I  would 
cease  to  pinch  the  angel,  that  the  beast  may  wax 
fat.  I  would  keep  the  beast  under,  that  the  angel 
may  have  room. 

Do  you  say  that  the  picture  is  fanciful  ?  Every- 
thing is  fanciful  till  it  is  put  in  practice.  Fancy  is 
often  but  the  foreshadow  of  a  coming  fact. 

If  some  such  course  as  this  is  not  possible,  if  wo 
must  inevitably  and  perpetually  move  on  in  the 
same  rut  in  which  we  move  now,  then,  in  a  thou- 
sand and  a  thousand  cases,  life  seems  to  UK?  not 
worth  the  living. 


VII. 


;T  is  not  simply  that  women  are  chained 
to  a  body  of  death.  Men  are  equally 
victims.  The  world  is  kept  back  from 
its  goal.  One  member  cannot  suffer 
without  involving  all  the  members  in  its  suffering. 
Marriage,  in  its  truest  type,  is  love  spiritual- 
izing life  ;  the  union  of  the  mightiest  and  subtlest 
forces  working  the  noblest  results.  Marriage  in  its 
commonest  manifestations  is  a  clumsy  mechanical 
contrivance.  Marriage  is  too  often  mirage,  —  far 
off,  in  books,  in  dreams,  lovely  and  divine  ;  ap- 
proached, it  resolves  itself  into  washing  and  iron- 
ing and  cooking  and  nursing  and  house-cleaning 
and  making  and  mending  and  long-suffering  from 
New  Year  to  Christmas  and  from  Christmas  on  to 
New  Year,  to  the  great  majority  of  all  the  women 
I  know  anything  about.  I  do  not  mean  simply 
the  dull,  uninteresting  women,  of  whom  there  are 
really  not  many,  but  the  bright  and  intellectual, 
capable  o£  adorning  any  station,  of  whom  there 
are  more  than  you  think,  because,  buried  under 


1U  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

household  ruins,  you  scarcely  catch  a  glimpse  of 
what  they  long  to  be  and  what  they  might  be. 
And  they  do  not  like  it.  Volumes  may  be  written 
and  spoken,  extolling  the  tidy  kitchens,  the  trim 
v/ives,  the  snowy  table-cloths,  and  telling  us  how 
beautiful  a  woman  is  when  doing  her  house-work ; 
and  a  few  foolish  women  will  be  found  to  ac- 
cept it  all  and  work  the  harder.  Hundreds  of 
years  ago,  when  a  person  I  know  was  inconceiva- 
bly young,  and  found  great  delight  in  hanging 
about  the  kitchen  during  the  seed-time  and  har- 
vest of  pies  and  preserves,  to  glean  up  the  rem- 
nants of  mince-meat  and  various  mixtures  left  in 
the  pans,  a  tiny  relative  much  more  acute  than  he 
used  to  practise  upon  his  approbativeness  by  so- 
liloquizing to  himself  while  both  their  spoons  were 
clattering  around  the  sides  of  the  tin  pan  with 
frantic  rapidity,  "Now  Peggoty  is  n't  going  away, 
and  let  me  have  the  rest.  Peggoty  is  going  to 
stay  and  eat  it  all  up."  The  result  was  that  Peg- 
goty used  immediately  to  walk  off  and  leave  his 
cormorant  kinsman  to  the  undivided  booty.  Just 
about  as  astute  as  the  kinsman,  and  just  about  as 
silly  as  Peggoty,  are  the  men  who  prepare  and 
the  women  who  suck  the  thin  pap  of  our  milk- 
and-water  novels  and  newspapers.  But  the  lat- 
ter are  growing  fewer  and  fewer  every  day.  Some 
women  have  a  natural  taste  for  cooking.  Some 
women  are  specially  skilled  in  sewingv  jafSome  wo- 
men are  born  with  a  broom  in  their  hands,  and 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  95 

some  fin  J  the  sick-room  their  peculiar  paradise : 
but  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  any  woman  who  had 
a  natural  fondness  for  being  worked  and  worried 
from  morning  till  night,  hurrying  from  pillar  to 
post,  and  conscious  all  the  time  that  things  were 
left  in  an  unfinished  state,  from  sheer  want  of  time 
to  complete  them  properly.  Within  a  week,  a 
woman,  a  model  housekeeper,  devoted  to  her 
family,  —  a  woman  who  never  wrote  a  word  for 
print,  nor  ever  addressed  so  much  as  a  female  meet- 
ing of  any  kind,  a  woman  whose  husband  looks  upon 
strong-mindedness  as  a  species  of  leprosy,  to  be 
lamented  rather  than  denounced,  but  at  any  cost 
kept  from  spreading,  —  has  told  me  that,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  talk  it  would  -make,  she  would  shut 
up  her  house,  take  her  whole  family,  and  go  to 
a  hotel  to  board  from  June  to  October,  so  worn 
and  wearied  is  she  with  her  household  duties.  Yet 
her  family  consists  of  only  three  members,  and  her 
husband  is  full  of  loving-kindness  and  considera- 
tion. Another  woman,  equally  accomplished  in  all 
domestic  arts  and  graces,  and  equally  happy  in  her 
conjugal  relations,  once  told  me  that  she  has  seen 
from  her  window  a  carriage  of  friends  coming  up  the 
road  to  her  house,  and  has  been  forced  to  wipe  away 
the  tears  before  she  could  go  to  the  door  to  greet 
them ;  so  utterly  disheartened  was  she  at  the  pros- 
pect of  still  further  weight  upon  her  already  over- 
burdened shoulders.  Yet  she  was  no  misanthrope, 
no  nun.  She  loved  society,  and  was  fitted  to  shine 


96  *      A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

in  it ;  but  the  inexorable,  unremitting  labor  of  her 

household  was  such,  that  it  was  impossible  for  her 

to  receive  from  society  the  solace  which  it  ought  to 

give  and  which  it  has  to  give.     So  heavily  pressed 

the  yoke,  that  a  party  of  friends  was  no  pleasure  to 

look  forward  to,  but  only  more  cake  to  be  made, 

more  meat  to  be  roasted,  more  sheets  to  be  washed. 

Women   are   accounted   the  weaker   sex ;   but 

there  is  no  comparison  to  be  made  between  the 

labor  of  the  weaker  and  the  stronger.     Of  fathers 

of  families  and  mothers  of  families,  the  real  wear 

and  tear  of  life  comes  on  the  latter.     If  there  is 

anxiety  as  to  a  sufficiency  of  support,  the  mother 

shares  it  equally  with  the  father,  and  feels  it  none 

the  less  for  not  being  able  to  contribute  directly  to 

the  supply  of  the  deficiency;  forced,  passive  en- 

/  durance  of  an  evil  is  quite  as  difficult  a  virtue  as 

/  unsuccessful  struggle  against  it.     If  there  is  no 

••anxiety  in  that  direction,  the  occupations  of  men 

'can  scarcely  give  them  any  hint  of  the  peculiar 

,  perplexing,  depressing,  irritating  nature  of  a  wo- 

[jman's  ordinary  household  duties.      Pamphleteers 

exhort  women  to  hush  up  the  discords,  drive  away 

the  clouds,  and  have  only  smiles  and  sunshine  for 

the  husband  coming  home  wearied  with  his  day's 

labor.     They  would  be  employing  themselves  to 

much  better  advantage,  if  they  would  enjoin  him 

(to  bring  home  smiles  and  sunshine  for  his  wife. 

She  is  the  one  that  pre-eminently  needs  strength 

and  soothing  and  consolation.     She  needs  a  warm 


.  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  97 

heart  to  lean  on,  a  strong  arm,  and  a  steady  hand 
to  lift  her  out  of  the  sloughs  in  which  she  is  ready 
to  sink,  and  set  her  on  the  high  places  where  birds 
sing  and  flowers  bloom  and  breezes  blow.  The 
husband's  work  may  be  absorbing  and  exhaustive, 
but  a  fundamental  difference  lies  in  the  simple  fact, 
that  a  man  has  constant  and  certain  change  of 
scene,  and  a  woman  has  not.  A  man  goes  out  to 
his  work  and  comes  in  to  his  meals.  Two  or  three 
times  a  day,  sometimes  all  the  evening,  always  at 
night  and  on  Sunday,  he  is  away  from  his  business 
and  his  place  of  business.  The  day  may  be  long 
or  short,  but  there  is  an  end  to  it.  A  woman  is  on 
the  spot  all  the  time,  and  her  cares  never  cease. 
She  eats  and  drinks,  she  goes  out  and  comes  in, 
she  lies  down  and  rises  up,  tethered  to  one  stone. 
It  does  not  seem  to  amount  to  much,  that  a  man 
closes  his  shop  and  goes  home  ;  that  he  unyokes 
his  oxen,  ties  up  his  cows,  and  sits  down  on  the 
door-step :  but  let  the  merchant,  year  after  year, 
eat  and  sleep  in  his  counting-room,  the  schoolmaster 
in  his  school-room,  the  shoemaker  over  hi-  lapstone, 
the  blacksmith  by  his  anvil,  the  ministei  in  his 
study,  the  lawyer  in  his  chambers,  with  only  as 
frequent  variations  as  a  housekeeper's  visiting  and 
tea-drinkings  give  her,  and  I  think  he  would  pres- 
ently learn  that  he  needs  not  to  possess  powers 
acute  enough  to  divide  a  hair  'twixt  north  and 
northwest  side,  in  order  to  distinguish  the  differ- 
ence. A  distance  of  half  a  mile,  or  even  a  quartei 


98  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

of  a  mile,  breaks  off  all  the  little  cords  that  have 
been  compressing  a  man's  veins,  and  lets  the  blood 
rush  through  them  with  force  and  freedom.  It  is 

o 

change  of  scene,  change  of  persons,  change  of  at- 
mosphere, and  a  consequent  change  of  a  man's 
own  self.  He  is  made  over  new. 

But  his  wife  moils  on  in  the  same  place.  Dark 
care  sits  behind  her  at  breakfast  and  dinner  and 
supper.  The  walls  are  festooned  with  her  cares. 
The  floors  are  covered  with  them  as  thick  as  the 
dust  in  the  Interpreter's  house.  He  shakes  off  the 
dust  from  his  feet  and  goes  home  :  her  home  is  in 
the  dust.  What  wonder  that  it  strangles  and  suf- 
focates her  ? 

Moreover,  a  man's  occupation  has  uniformity,  or 
rather  unity.  His  path  lies  in  one  line  ;  sometimes 
he  has  only  to  walk  mechanically  along  it.  Rather 
stupid,  but  not  wearing  work  ;  for  generally  if  he 
had  been  a  man  upon  whom  it  would  have  worn 
he  would  have  done  something  else  :  always  he  has 
power  to  bring  everything  to  bear  on  his  business. 
If  it  is  IT  ^ntal  labor,  he  has  the  opportunity  of  soli- 
tude, o.  only  such  association  as  assists.  His  help- 
ers, and  all  with  whom  he  is  concerned,  are  ma- 
ture, intelligent,  trained,  and  often  ambitious  and 
self-respectful  and  courteous.  He  can  set  his  ful- 
crum close  to  the  weight,  and  all  he  has  to  do  is  to 
bear  down  on  the  lever. 

The  wife's  assistants,  if  she  has  any,  are  unspeak- 
ably in  the  rough,  and  little  children  make  all  her 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  99 

schemes  u  gang  a-gley."  The  incautious  slam  of  a 
door  will  shatter  the  best-laid  plans,  and  the  stub- 
bing of  a  chubby  toe  sinks  her  morning  deep  into 
the  midday.  Children  are  to  a  man  amusement, 
delight,  juvenescence,  a  truthful  rendering  of  the 
old  myth,  that  wicked  kings  were  wont  to  derive  a 
ghoul-like  strength  by  transfusion  of  the  blood  of 
infants.  The  father  has  them  for  a  little  while. 
He  frolics  with  them.  He  rejoices  over  them. 
They  are  beautiful  and  charming.  He  is  new  to 
them,  and  they  are  new  to  him,  and  by  the  time 
the  novelty  is  over  it  is  the  hour  for  them  to  go  to 
bed.  He  feels  rested  and  refreshed  for  his  contact 
with  them.  They  present  strong  contrasts  to  the 
world  he  deals  with  all  day.  Their  transparency 
shines  sweetly  against  its  opacity.  Even  their 
little  wants  and  vanities  and  bickerings  are  to  him 
only  interesting  developments  of  human  nature. 
His  power  is  pleased  with  their  dependence ;  his 
pride  flatters  itself  with  their  future  ;  his  tenderness 
softens  to  their  clinging ;  his  earthliness  cleaves 
away  before  their  innocence,  and  he  thinks  his 
quiver  can  never  be  too  full  of  them. 

This  is  the  poetry,  and  he  reads  it  with  great 
delight;  but  there  is  a  prose  department,  and  that 
comes  to  the  mother.  She  has  had  the  cherubs  all 
day,  and  she  knows  that  the  trail  of  the  serpent  is 
over  them  all.  She  sees  the  angel  in  their  souls  as 
well  as  he,  often  better  ;  but  she  sees  too  the  mark 
cf  the  beast  on  their  forehead,  —  which  he  seldom 


100  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

discovers.  His  playthings  are  her  stumbling-blocks. 
The  constancy  of  her  presence  forbids  novelty,  and 
throws  her  upon  her  inventive  powers  for  resources. 
All  their  weariness  and  fretfulness  and  tumbles  and 
aches  are  poured  into  her  lap.  She  has  no  divis- 
ion of  labor,  no  concentration  of  forces ;  no  five 
or  ten  hours  devoted  to  housework,  and  two  or 
three  to  her  children,  taking  them  into  her  heart 
to  do  good  like  a  medicine.  They  patter  through 
every  hour  to  stay  her  from  doing  with  her  might 
any  of  the  many  things  which  her  hands  find  to 
do.  Nothing  keeps  limits ;  everything  laps  over. 
God  has  given  her  a  love  so  inexhaustible,  that, 
notwithstanding  the  washings  and  watchings,  the 
sewing  and  dressing  which  children  necessitate, 
notwithstanding  the  care,  the  check,  the  pull-back, 
the  weariness,  the  heartsickness,  which  they  oc- 
casion, the  "  little  hindering  things  "  are  —  my 
pen  is  not  wont  to  be  timid,  but  it  shrinks  from 
attempting  to  say  what  little  ones  are  to  a  mother. 
But  divine  arrangement  does  not  prevent  human 
drawback ;  and  looking  not  at  inward  solace,  but 
outward  business,  it  remains  true  that  the  business 
of  providing  for  the  wants  of  a  family  is  not  of 
that  smooth,  uncreaking  nature  to  the  mother  that 
it  is  to  the  father.  Let  a  man  take  two  or  three 
little  children  —  two  or  three  ?  Let  him  take 
one  !  —  of  one,  two,  three,  or  four  years  of  age, 
to  his  shop,  or  stall,  or  office,  and  take  care  of  him 
til  the  time  for  a  week,  and  he  will  see  what  I  mean. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE  101 

I  do  not  say  that  a  man's  work  may  not  be  harder 
for  an  hour,  or  five  or  ten  hours,  more  exhaustive 
of  mental  and  vital  power,  more  exclusive  of  all 
diversions  than  his  wife's  for  the  same  time.  It 
may  or  may  not  be ;  quite  as  often  the  latter  as 
the  former :  but  I  do  say  that  severe  prearranged, 
intermittent  labor  wears  less  upon  the  temper, 
the  nerves,  and  the  spirits,  that  is,  upon  body 
and  soul,  than  lighter,  confused,  unintermitting 
labor.  Work  that  enlists  the  energies  and  the 
enthusiasm  will  weary,  buu  the  weariness  itself  is 
welcome,  and  brings  with  it  a  satisfaction, — the 
pleasant  sense  of  something  accomplished.  The 
multiplicity  of  a  woman's  labors  distracts  as  well 
as  wearies,  and  each  one  is  so  petty  that  she  has 
scarcely  anything  to  look  back  on.  Not  orie  of 
them  is  great  enough  to  brace  and  stimulate,  and 
all  together  they  form  a  multitudinous  heap,  and 
not  a  mountain.  It  is  a  round  of  endless  detail ; 
little,  insignificant,  provoking  items  that  she  gets 
no  credit  for  doing,  but  fatal  discredit  for  leaving 
undone.  Nobody  notices  that  things  are  as  they 
should  be ;  but  if  things  are  not  as  they  shoulr 
be,  it  were  better  for  her  that  a  millstone  were 
hanged  about  her  neck,  &c.  ! 

In  a  community,  you  find  the  husbands  devoted 
to  different  pursuits.  Baker,  miller,  farmer,  advo- 
cate, clerk,  —  each  one  has  a  peculiar  calling  for 
which  he  is  supposed  to  have  .a  special  taste,  fit- 
ness, or  motive,  perhaps  all ;  but  their  wives  have 


102  A   NEW,  A  TtfOSPHERE. 

no  room  for  choice.  Whether  they  have  a  gift  of 
it  or  not,  they  have  the  same  routine  of  baking  and 
brewing  and  house-cleaning.  Suppose  the  woman 
does  not  like  it  ?  The  supposition  is  not  an  impos- 
sible, not  even  an  unnatural  one.  Woman's-sphere 
writers  confound  distinctions  ;  they  seem  to  think 
that  woman  was  not  created  in  the  garden  in  native 
honor  clad  like  man,  but  rather,  like  the  turtle, 
with  her  house  on  her  back,  and  that  a  modern 
American  house  and  its  belongings  ;  so  that  if  she 
dislikes  any  of  the  conclusions  which  such  a  house 
premises,  it  is  as  unnatural  and  unwomanly  as  if 
she  should  be  coarse  or  cruel.  Womanliness,  in 
their  vocabulary,  implies  fondness  of  and  pleasure 
in  domestic  drudgery.  Their  ideal  woman  is  en- 
amored of  wash-tubs  and  broom-handles  and  fry- 
ing-pans. But  modern  housekeeping  is  no  more 
woman's  sphere  than  farming  is  man's  sphere,  nor 
so  much.  If  you  go  back  far  enough,  you  will 
find  that  man  was  directly  and  divinely  ordained 
to  that  very  pursuit.  The  Lord  God  took  the 
man,  and  put  him  into  the  garden  of  Eden,  to 
dress  it  and  to  keep  it.  His  sphere  was  expressly 
marked  out.  He  was  to  be  a  gardener,  a  farmer, 
a  tiller  of  the  soil.  What  of  the  woman  ?  "  The 
Lord  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should 
be  alone :  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him." 
What  kind  of  help  was  meant  is  here  implied,  but 
is  more  clearly  discovered  further  on  by  Adam's 
interpretation:  "The  woman  whom  thou 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  103 

gavest  to  be  ivtth  me"  She  was  made  for  society, 
to  be  company  for  him ;  to  talk  and  laugh  and 
cheer  and  keep  him  from  being  lonesome.  Not  a 
word  about  housekeeping.  Adam  is  concerned 
to  put  the  very  best  face  on  the  matter,  and  he 
does  not  say,  "  the  woman  whom  thou  gavest  to 
train  up  the  vines,  to  pare  the  apples,  to  stone  the 
raisins,  to  gather  the  currants,  to  press  the  grapes, 
to  preserve  the  peaches,"  or  for  any  other  pur- 
poses of  an  Eden  household.  It  is  simply  "  thou 
gavest  to  be  with  me."  Whatever  may  have  come 
in  afterwards  to  modify  the  original  arrangement, 
came  for  "  the  hardness  of  your  hearts."  But 
here,  before  the  fall,  is  seen,  in  all  its  beauty  and 
simplicity,  the  original  plan.  You  have  the  whole 
u  woman  question "  in  a  nutshell.  Yet  people 
who  are  fond  of  quoting  the  Bible  manage  to  skip 
this.  They  go  back  to  the  curse,  "  thy  desire 
shall  be  to  thy  husband,  and  he  shall  rule  over 
thee,"  and  there  they  stop.  Their  nature  is  nature 
accursed,  and  even  that  is  silent  on  the  point  of 
menial  service :  they  do  not  go  back  to  nature  in- 
nocent, where  it  is  excluded  by  implication.  But 
if  the  Bible  is  proof  on  one  side,  it  is  proof  on  the 
other.  If  the  husband  is  made  to  be  the  head  of 
the  woman,  he  is  also  made  to  be  her  serving- 
man.  Nay,  even  the  silence  of  the  curse  is  more 
golden  than  the  speech  of  man,  for  the  same  allot- 
ment of  penalty  which  lays  upon  her  the  sorrow 
of  conception  lays  upon  him  the  sorrow  of  toil : 


104  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

so  that  every  man  whose  wife  is  obliged  to  eat 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  her  brow  is  out  of  his  sphere, 
and  has  failed  of  his  "  mission."  He  lays  upon 
the  shoulders  of  a  weak  woman  his  own  burden  as 
well  as  hers.  And  every  man  who  is  not  a  farmer 
is  out  of  his  sphere,  and  should  put  himself  into  it 
before  he  casts  a  single  stone  at  any  woman  ;  and 
he  is  as  much  more  guilty  as  his  sphere  is  more 
accurately  defined. 

So  much  for  the  revelation  of  the  word  ;  now 
for  the  revelation  of  nature. 

Naturally,  I  suppose  women's  tastes  are  not  any 
more  likely  to  be  uniform  than  men's  tastes.  The 
narrow  range  of  their  lives  has  undoubtedly  tended 
to  keep  them  down  towards  one  standard,  but  every 
new-born  child  is  a  new  protest  of  nature,  —  a  new 
outburst  of  individuality  against  monotony,  so  that 
the  work  is  really  never  done,  and  never  comes 
anywhere  near  being  so  far  done  as  that  all  women, 
or  the  majority  of  women,  should  choose  the  life 
of  a  housekeeper.  As  far  as  my  observation  goes, 
the  best  women,  the  brightest  women,  the  noblest 
women,  are  the  very  ones  to  whom  it  is  most  irk- 
some. I  do  not  mean  housekeeping  with  well- 
trained  servants,  for  that  is  general  enough  to 
admit  a  "  brother  near  the  throne " ;  but  that, 
alas  !  is  almost  unknown  in  the  world  wherein 
I  have  lived  ;  and  a  woman  who  is  satisfied  with 
the  small  cares,  the  small  economies,  the  small 
interests,  the  constant  contemplation  of  small 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE  105 

things  which  many  a  household  demands,  is  a 
very  small  sort  of  woman.  I  make  the  assertion 
both  as  an  inference  and  an  observation.  A  noble 
discontent  —  not  a  peevish  complaining,  but  an 
inward  and  spiritual  protest  —  is  a  woman's  safe- 
guard against  the  deterioration  which  such  a  life 
threatens,  and  her  proof  of  capacity  and  her  note 
of  preparation  for  a  higher.  Such  a  woman  does 
not  do  her  work  less  well,  but  she  rises  ever  supe- 
rior to  her  work.  I  know  such  women. 

You  talk  about  the  mother-instinct.  The  moth-,; 
er-instinct  makes  a  mother  love  her  children,  but 
it  does  not  make  her  love  to  destroy  herself  with 
unremitting  toil  for  them.  It  makes  her  do  it,^ 
but  it  does  not  make  her  love  to  do  it.  And  be- 
cause, in  her  great  love,  she  will  do  it  when  the 
necessity  is  laid  upon  her,  —  a  wicked  perversion 
of  God's  good  gift  often  lays  the  necessity  upon 
her  when  God  does  not.  The  mother-instinct  in 
woman  corresponds  to  the  father-instinct  in  man  ; 
and  the  wrifely  love  to  the  husbandly  love.  Each 
is  strong  enough  to  bear  joyfully  all  that  God  lays 
•upon  it,  and  patiently  much  that  he  does  not  lay 
and  never  intended  to  be  laid.  But  he  who  count? 
upon  that  strength,  for  the  purpose  of  abusing  it, 
is  guilty  of  a  high  crime  against  humanity.  Each 
sex  has  the  same  uniformity  in  its  loves,  and  would 
undoubtedly  have  the  same  variety  in  its  tastes 
if  it  were  not  hindered.  Men  do  not  themselves 
believe  so  much  as  they  profess  in  this  menial 


106  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

gravitation.  If  they  did,  they  would  never  lecture 
women  so  much  about  it.  The  very  frenzy  and  fre- 
quency of  their  exhortations  are  suspicious.  They 
join  together  what  God  has  not  joined.  They 
claim  identity  where  he  has  established  diversity. 
Women  are  continually  and  publicly  admonished 
of  their  .household  obligations,  but  who  ever  heard 
an  assembly  of  men  admonished  of  theirs  ?  Yet 
men  are  as  often  derelict  in  furnishing  provision 
for  their  families  as  women  are  lax  in  its  admin- 
istration. And  while  the  husband  may  do  his  part 
in  the  way  which  seems  good  in  his  own  eyes,  the. 
wife  must  do  hers  in  only  one  way,  whether  it  seem 
good  or  bad.  The  wise  woman  must  tread  "  the 
old  dull  round  of  things  "  as  well  as  the  foolish 
woman,  and  then  she  is  so  footsore  that  she  can- 
not enter  upon  that  higher  path  which  is  open  only 
to  her,  and  shut  to  the  foolish  woman.  The  low 
necessities  usurp  the  throne  of  the  lofty  possibil- 
ities. Oh  I  for  this  what  tender  consideration  j 
should  she  not  receive  !  Confined  to  the  unin-} 
teresting  routine  of  domestic  drudgery,  while  her£ 
tastes  incline  and  her  powers  fit  her  for  other 
things,  no  admiration  is  too  deep,  no  sympathy, 
too  warm.  The  gentlest  and  most  thoughtful 
attention  is  her  smallest  due.  Let  men  fancy  for 
a  moment  that  at  marriage  they  must  give  up  the 
law,  the  pulpit,  the  machine-shop,  the  farm,  in 
which  they  excel,  and  which  is  adequate  to  purse 
and  pleasure,  and  turn  hod-carrier  or  road-mender, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  107 

and  they  may  have  a  glimpse  of  the  sacrifice  which 
many  a  gifted  woman  has  made.  If  she  made  it 
unwittingly,  marrying  before  she  knew  her  powers, 
or  the  life  which  marriage  involves,  a  generous 
pity  and  love  will  smooth  her  path  as  much  as 
may  be,  and  press  back  the  unexpected  thorns. 
If  she  made  it  wittingly,  choosing,  in  her  stronoc 

O   J    '  fD'  Q 

love,  to  lay  upon  the  altar  her  pleasant  things,  so 
much  the  more  will  a  generous  man  constrain  her 
to  forget,  in  the  fervor  and  efficacy  of  his  love,  the 
fruit  which  once  her  soul  longed  for.  If  he  cannot 
prevent  the  sacrifice,  he  can  cause  that  it  shall  not 
have  been  made  in  vain. 

Again,  a  man  receives  immediate  and  definite 
results  from  his  work.  He  has  salary  or  wages,  — 
so  much  a  day,  a  year,  a  job.  He  is  Lord  High 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  irresponsible. 
His  wife  gets  no  money  for  her  work.  She  has  no 
funds  under  her  own  control,  no  resources  of  which 
she  is  mistress.  She  must  draw  supplies  from  her 
husband,  and  often  with  much  outlay  of  ingenuity. 
Some  men  dole  out  money  to  their  wives  as  if  it 
were  a  gift,  a  charity,  something  to  which  the  lat- 
ter have  no  right,  but  which  they  must  receive  as  a 
favor,  and  for  which  they  must  be  thankful.  They 
act  as  if  their  wives  were  trying  to  plunder  them. 
Now  a  man  has  no  more  right  to  his  earnings  than 
his  wife  hag.  They  belong  to  her  just  as  much  as 
to  him.  There  is  a  mischievous  popular  opinion 
that  the  husband  is  the  producer  and  the  wife  the 


108  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

/consumer.  In  point  of  fact,  the  wife  is  just  as  much 
a  producer  as  the  husband.  Her  part  in  the  con- 
cern is  just  as  important  as  his.  She  earns  it  as 
truly,  and  has  just  as  strong  a  claim  and  just  as 
much  a  right  to  it  as  he  ;  if  possible  she  has  more, 
for  she  ought  to  receive  some  compensation  for 
the  gap  that  yawns  between  work  and  wages.  It 
is  much  more  satisfactory  to  receive  the  latter  as 
a  direct  result  of  the  former,  than  as  a  kind  of 
alms.  Many  a  woman  does  as  much  to  build  up 
her  husband's  prosperity  as  he  does  himself. 
Many  a  woman  saves  him  from  failure  and  dis- 
grace. And,  as  a  general  rule,  the  fate  and  for- 
tunes of  the  family  lie  in  her  hands  as  mucii  as  in 
his.  What  absurdity  to  pay  him  his  wages  and  to 
give  her  money  to  go  shopping  with  ! 

A  woman  who  went  around  to  make  a  collection 
for  a  small  local  charity,  told  me  that  she  could  not 
help  noticing  the  difference  between  the  married 
and  the  unmarried  women.  The  latter  took  out 
their  purses  on  the  spot  and  gave  their  mite  or 
mint  without  hesitation.  The  former  parleyed  and 
would  see  about  it,  gave  rather  uncertainly,  and 
must  speak  to  Edward  before  they  could  decide. 
Now  it  may  well  be  that  a  woman  who  has  only 
her  own  self  to  provide  for  can  give  more  liberally 
than  one  upon  whose  purse  come  the  innumerable 
requisitions  of  a  family.  The  mother  may  be  forced 
to  make  many  sacrifices,  and  yet  be  so  blessed  in 
the  making  that  there  shall  be  no  sacrifice.  The 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  109 

pleasure  shall  overbalance  the  pain.  But  there 
is  no  reason  why  a  married  woman  should  hesi- 
tate, or  be  embarrassed,  or  consult  Edward  as  to 
the  expenditure  of  a  dime  or  a  dollar,  any  more 
than  an  unmarried  one.  There  may  be  more  calls 
on  the  purse,  but  she  ought  to  be  mistress  of  it. 
She  ought  to  know  her  husband's  circumstances 
well  enough  to  know  what  she  can  afford  to  give 
away,  and  she  ought  to  be  as  free  to  use  her  judg- 
ment as  he  is  to  use  his.  In  any  unusual  emer- 
gency, each  will  wish  to  consult  the  other;  but 
he  does  not  think  of  asking  her  as  to  the  disposal 
of  every  chance  quarter  of  a  dollar,  neither  should 
she  think  of  asking  him.  If  circumstances  make  it 
necessary  to  sail  close  to  the  wind,  sail  close  to  the 
wind  ;  but  let  both  be  in  the  same  boat. 

All  this  miserable  and  humiliating  halting  arises 
from  the  miserable  and  humiliating  notion  that  the 
husband  is  the  power  and  the  wife  the  weight.  It 
comes  out,  more  convenient  in  substance,  but  just 
as  objectionable  in  shape,  in  the  wife's  "  allowance." 
The  husband  alloivs  her  so  much  a  year  for  her  ex- 
penses. If  it  means  simply  that  so  much  is  set 
aside  for  that  purpose,  very  well;  only  it  would 
sound  rather  strange  to  say  that  she  allows  him  so 
much  to  carry  on  his  business.  A  woman  does 
not  wish  to  be  conversant  with  the  details  of  her 
husband's  shop  any  more  than  he  wishes  to  under- 
stand the  details  of  her  kitchen  :  but  he  desires  to 
know  enough  of  that  to  be  sure  of  prompt,  suffi- 


110  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

cient,  and  agreeable  meals,  and  a  tidy  house,  at  a 
cost  within  his  means.  So  she  should  know  with 
sufficient  accuracy  the  extent  and  sources  of  their 
income  to  be  able  to  arrange  her  ordinary  disburse- 
ments without  constant  recurrence  to  him.  He 
does  not  take  his  dinner  as  a  boon  from  her.  He 
feels  under  no  obligations  for  it.  He  does  not  con- 
sider himself  on  his  good  behavior  out  of  gratitude. 
It  is  a  regular  institution,  a  blessing  entirely  com- 
mon to  both,  and  excites  no  emotion.  So  should 
her  money  be,  —  as  regularly  and  mechanically 
supplied  as  the  dinner,  exciting  no  more  comment 
and  needing  no  more  argument.  Whether  it  is 
kept  in  her  pocket  or  his  may  be  of  small  moment ; 
but  as  she  does  not  lock  up  the  dinner  in  the  cup- 
board, and  then  stand  at  the  door  and  dole  it  out 
to  him  by  the  plateful,  but  sets  it  on  the  table  for 
him  to  help  himself:  so  it  is  better,  more  pacific,' 
that  he  should  deposit  the  money  in  an  equally 
neutral  and  accessible  locality. 

I  portray  to  myself  the  flutter  which  such  a 
proposition  would  raise  in  many  marital  bosoms  ; 
would  that  they  might  be  soothed.  It  ib  well 
known  among  farmers  that  hens  will  not  eat  so 
much  if  you  set  a  measure  of  corn  where  they 
can  pick  whenever  they  choose,  as  they  will  if  you 
only  fling  down  a  handful  now  and  then,  and  keep 
them  continually  half  starved.  At  the  same  time 
they  will  be  in  better  condition.  So,  looking  at  the 
matter  from  the  very  lowest  stand-point,  A  woman 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  Ill 

who  has  free  access  to  the  money  will  not  be  half 
so  likely  to  lavish  it  as  the  woman  who  is  put  off 
with  scanty  and  infrequent  sums.  She  who  knows 
how  much  there  is  to  spend  will  almost  invariably 
keep  within  the  limits.  If  she  does  not  know,  her 
imagination  will  be  very  likely  to  magnify  the 
fountain,  and  if  but  meagre  supplies  are  forthcom- 
ing, she  will  attribute  it  to  niggardliness,  and  will 
consider  everything  that  can  be  got  from  her  hus- 
band as  legal  plunder ;  and  with  under-ground 
pipes  and  above-ground  trenches  it  shall  go  hard 
but  she  will  drain  him  tolerably  dry.  Then  he 
will  inveigh  against  her  extravagance,  and  so  not 
only  lose  his  money,  but  his  temper,  his  calmness, 
and  his  complacency,  all  the  while  blaming  her 
when  the  fault  is  chiefly  his  own.  If  he  had  but 
frankly  acquainted  her  with  the  main  facts  ;  if  he 
had  but  permitted  her  to  look  in  and  see  what 
was  the  capacity  of  the  reservoir,  instead  of  leav- 
ing her  to  sit  under  the  walls,  knowing  nothing 
of  its  resources  but  what  she  could  learn  from 
the  occasional  spouting  of  a  single  small  pipe,  he 
would  have  avoided  all  the  trouble.  It  is  so  rarely 
that  a  wife  will  recklessly  transcend  her  reasona- 
ble income,  that  I  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to 
suggest  any  provision  against  the  evil.  It  is  an 
abnormal  and  sporadic  case,  to  be  treated  physio- 
logically rather  than  philosophically.  The  man 
has  unfortunately  allied  himself  to  a  mad  woman, 
or  he  has  found  to  his  regret  that  there  is  nothing 
more  fulsome  than  a  she-fool. 


112  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

It  irks  me  to  say  these  things.  It  is  almost  a 
profanation  to  connect  such  cold-blooded  business 
matters  with  a  relation  which  is  supposed  to  involve, 
and  which  should  involve,  the  highest,  the  purest, 
the  fairest  traits  of  human  life.  In  true  marriage 
there  is  indeed  no  need  of  these  considerations.  A 
complete  and  perfect  marriage  breaks  down  all 
barriers,  and  fuses  each  separate  interest  into  one. 
In  such  there  is  no  mine  and  thine,  but  unity  and 
identity.  For  perfect  marriages  I  do  not  write ; 
but  for  the  imperfect,  and  the  marriages  not  yet 
contracted.  Let  us  have  another  standard  set 
up,  another  starting-point  established,  another  goal 
fixed,  that  we  may  run  without  weariness,  and  walk 
without  faintness,  and  be  crowned  at  last  with  a  lau- 
rel worth  the  wearing.  A  ten  years'  wife  once  said 
to  a  young  lady  who  was  spending  money  rather 
freely,  —  money  which  was,  however,  her  own,  for 
which  she  had  to  depend  upon  no  one, — "  You 
ought  to  lay  up  something  for  yourself.  You 
should  have  a  little  money  —  if  only  five  hundred 
dollars,  it  will  be  better  than  nothing  —  in  the 
bank,  so  that  when  you  are  married  you  will  have 
something  of  your  own  to  go  to,  and  not  have  to 
depend  entirely  upon  your  husband.  You  will  be 
9,  great  deal  happier  to  have  something  that  you 
can  do  what  you  choose  with,  and  not  feel  that 
you  must  account  for  every  cent,  and  make  it  go 
as  far  as  possible."  But  it  seems  to  me  that  this  is 
felo  de  se.  Doubtless,  people  often  find  that  they 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  113 

nave  married  the  wrong  person  ;  but  it  is  supposed 
to  be  a  mistake,  and  not  a  walking  into  the  ditch 
with  eyes  open.  If  a  girl  knows,  or  even  suspects, 
or  entertains  the  possibility  beforehand,  that  she  is 
going  to  marry  a  man  from  whom  it  is  necessary 
to  provide  for  herself  a  pecuniary  refuge,  why  does 
she  marry  him  at  all  ?  If  she  deliberately  unites 
herself  to  one  who  she  believes,  or  even  fears,  will 
not  receive  her  as  a  trust  from  God,  bone  of  his 
bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh,  she  forfeits  all  sym- 
pathy and  pity,  whatever  may  befall  her.  If  the 
husband  whom  she  is  to  take  threatens  to  be  greedy, 
or  unsympathizing,  or  selfish,  or  stolid,  her  best  de- 
fence against  him  is,  not  to  put  money  in  a  bank, 
but  tu  keep  herself  out  of  his  reach.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  of  happiness  in  marriage,  where 
the  financial  wheels  do  not  run  —  I  will  not  say 
smoothly,  but  evenly.  The  road  may  be  rough, 
roundabout,  and  steep,  without  precluding  whole- 
some and  hearty  happiness ;  but  if  one  wheel  drags 
while  the  other  turns,  if  one  goes  back  while  the 
other  goes  forward,  if  for  any  reason  the  two  do 
not  move  by  parallel  lines  in  the  same  direction, 
the  whole  carriage  is  bewitched,  the  whole  jour- 
ney is  embittered,  the  whole  object  is  baffled. 

It  is  marvellous  to  see  the  insensibility   with5/., 
which  men  manage  these  delicate  matters.     It  is 

o 

impossible   for  a  man   to  be  too   scrupulous,  too 
chivalrous,  too  refined,  in  his  bearing  towards  his  i 
wife.      Her  dependence  should  be  the  strongest 


114  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

appeal  to  Ms  manhood.  The  very  act  of  receiving 
money  from  him  puts  her  in  a  position  so  equivo- 
cal, that  the  utmost  affection  and  attention  should 
be  brought  into  play  to  reassure  her.  The  vel- 
vet touch  of  love  should  disguise  the  iron  hand 
of  business.  A  sensitive  woman  is  fully  enough 
alive  to  her  relations.  There  is  need  that  every 
gentle  and  tender  courtesy  should  assure  and  con- 
vince her  that  the  money  which  she  costs  is  a 
pleasure  and  a  privilege.  Her  delicacy,  her  self- 
respect,  her  confidence  in  his.  appreciation,  are  the 
strongest  ties  that  can  bind  her  to  himself.  Let 
them  but  be  sundered,  and  he  has  no  longer  any 
hold  on  happiness,  any  safeguard  against  discord.. 
Let  chivalry  be  forgotten,  let  sensitiveness  be  vio- 
lated, let  money  intrude  into  the  domain  of  love, 
and  the  spell  is  broken.  Your  stately  silver  urn 
is  become  an  iron  kettle. 

Yet  men  will  deliberately,  in  the  presence  of 
their  wives,  to  their  wives,  groan  over  the  cost  of 
living.  They  do  not  mean  extravagant  purchases 
of  silk  and  lace  and  velvet,  which  might  be  a 
wife's  fault  or  thoughtlessness,  and  furnish  an  ex- 
cuse for  rebuke  ;  but  the  butcher's  bill,  and  the 
grocers  bill,  and  the  joiner's  bill.  Man,  when  a 
woman  is  married,  do  you  think  she  loses  all  per-j 
sonal  feeling  ?  Do  you  think  your  glum  look  over 
the  expenses  of  housekeeping  is  a  fulfilment  of 
your  promise  to  love  and  cherish  ?  Is  it  calcu- 
lated to  retain  and  increase  her  tenderness  for  you  ? 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  115 

Does  it  bring  sunshine  and  lighten  toil,  and  bless 
her  with  knightly  grace  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  !< 
it  is  only  a  way  of  regretting  that  you  married  her  ? 
It  is  a  way  of  saying  that  you  did  not  count  the  cost/ 
You  may  not  present  it  to  yourself  in  that  light, 
but  in  that  light  you  present  it  to  her.  And  do 
you  think  it  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  her  ?  You  go 
out  to  your  shop,  or  sit  down  to  your  newspaper, 
and  forget  all  about  it.  She  sits  down  to  her 
sewing,  or  stands  over  her  cooking-stove,  and 
meditates  upon  it  with  an  indescribable  pain.  I 
do  not  say  that  every  kind  of  uneasiness  regarding 
expense  is  or  ought  to  be  thus  construed.  There 
may  be  an  uneasiness  springing  directly  from  love. 
A  strong  and  great-hearted  affection  frets  that  it 
cannot  minister  the  beauty  and  the  comfort  which 
it  longs  to  do,  or  defend  against  the  emergen- 
cies which  a  future  may  bring.  But  this  uneasi- 
ness is  rarely  if  ever  mistaken.  Love  can  usually 
find  a  way  to  soothe  the  sorrows  of  love,  and  a 
wife's  hand  can  almost  always  smooth  out  the 
wrinkles  from  the  brow  which  is  corrugated  only 
for  her.  The  complaint  which  I  mean  is  of  quite 
another  character.  Women  know  it,  if  men  do 
not ;  —  the  women  who  have  suffered  from  it,  for 
it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  there  are  women  to 
whose  experience  every  such  sensation  is  entirely 
foreign.  These  very  men  who  complain  because 
it  costs  so  much  to  live  will  lose  by  bad  debts 
more  than  their  wives  spend.  They  will,  by 


116  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

sheer  negligence,  by  a  selfish  reluctance  to  pre- 
sent a  bill  to  a  disagreeable  person,  by  a  cowardly 
fear  lest  insisting  on  what  is  due  should  alienate 
a  customer,  by  culpable  mismanagement  of  busi- 
ness, by  indorsing  a  note,  or  lending  money, 
through  mere  want  of  courage  to  say  "  No,"  or 
of  shrewdness  to  detect  dishonesty  or  incapa- 
city, lose  money  enough  to  foot  up  half  a  dozen 
bills.  They  will  waste  money  in  cigars,  in  oys- 
ter-suppers, in  riding  when  walking  would  be 
better  for  them,  in  keeping  a  horse  which  "  eats 
his  head  off,"  in  buying  luxuries  which  they  would 
be  better  off  without,  in  sending  packages  and 
luggage  by  express,  rather  than  have  the  trouble 
of  taking  them  themselves,  in  numberless  small 
items  of  which  they  make  no  account,  but  of  which 
the  bills  make  great  account.  If  one  might  judge 
from  the  newspapers,  extravagance  is  a  peculiarity 
of  women.  So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  the 
extravagance  of  women  is  not  for  a  moment  to  be 
compared  with  the  extravagance  of  men.*  A  man 
is  perversely,  persistently,  and  with  malice  afore- 
thought, extravagant.  He  is  extravagant  in  spite 
of  admonition  and  remonstrance.  Where  his  per- 
sonal comfort  or  interest  is  concerned,  he  scorns  a 

*  The  discussions  which,  since  this  was  written,  have  arisen 
concerning  expenditure  and  extravagance,  in  connection  with 
the  women's  pledge  against  the  purchase  of  foreign  goods,  only 
increase  the  strength  of  my  position.  But  let  it  be  remembered, 
that  I  speak  not  for  an  emergency,  but  for  the  conduct  of  life. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  117 

sacrifice.  He  laughs  at  the  suggestion  that  such 
a  little  thing  makes  any  difference  one  way  or 
another.  He  has  not  even  the  idea  of  economy. 
He  does  not  know  what  the  word  means.  Ho 
does  not  know  the  thing  when  he  sees  it.  Women 
take  to  it  naturally.  A  certain  innate  sense  of 
harmony  keeps  them  from  being  wasteful.  Their 
extravagance  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule.  They 
are  willing  to  incur  self-denial.  They  do  not/ 
scorn  to  take  thought  and  trouble,  and  be  put  to 
inconvenience,  for  the  sake  of  saving  money.  The 
greater  animalism  of  man  also  comes  out  here  in 
full  force.  If  sacrifice  must  be,  a  woman  will 
sacrifice  her  comforts  before  her  taste.  The  man 
will  let  his  tastes  go,  and  keep  his  comforts,  and 
call  it  good  sense.  A  woman's  extravagance  is  to 
some  purpose.  A  man's  to  none.  She  buys  many 
dresses,  but  she  gives  her  old  ones  away,  or  cuts 
them  over  for  the  children,  and  works  dextrously. 
A  man  buys  and  destroys.  Look  at  the  manner 
in  which  men  manage  the  national  housekeeping, 
and  see  whether  it  is  men  or  women  who  are  ex- 
travagant. Look  at  the  clerkships  in  the  depart- 
ments, look  at  members  of  Congress  browsing 
among  government  supplies,  look  at  army  and 
navy ;  walk  through  a  camp :  see  the  barrels  of 
good  food  thrown  away,  see  the  wood  wasted,  see 
the  tools  wantonly  destroyed.  I  think  the  wives 
of  the  soldiers  could  support  themselves  comfort- 
ably on  the  fragments  of  the  soldiers'  feasts.  No- 


118  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

body  complains.  A  great  nation  must  not  look 
too  closely  after  the  pennies.  A  great  army  al- 
ways makes  great  waste,  say  the  newspapers  that 
exhort  women  against  extravagance,  as  if  it  were 
as  much  a  law  of  nature  as  gravitation.  Why  not 
say  housekeeping  is  always  wasteful,  and  fall  back 
on  that  as  a  primal  law  of  nature  also  ?  Because 
housekeeping  is  not  always  wasteful,  you  say. 
Precisely.  Housekeeping  is  nearly  always  econ- 
omically conducted,  and  your  animadversions 
amount  just  to  this :  because  women  are  generally 
prudent,  they  are  to  be  chided  for  all  short- 
comings. But  men  are  always  wasteful,  there- 
fore they  must  be  let  alone.  Only  be  univer- 
sally bad,  and  you  shall  be  as  unmolested  as  if 
you  were  good.  You  say  that  it  is  easier  to  be 
economical  in  a  family  than  in  an  army.  Perhaps 
so  ;  but  if  the  soldiers,  instead  of  being  men,  were 
women,  do  you  for  a  moment  imagine  that  there 
would  be  any  such  waste  ?  Let  all  other  circum- 
stances be  unchanged.  Let  all  the  cost  come  upon 
the  government  just  as  it  does.  Let  all  provisions 
be  furnished  in  the  same  abundance  as  now,  and 
I  do  not  believe  there  would  be  much  more  waste 
than  there  is  in  average  families.  I  do  not  believe 
you  could  force  women  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet 
to  such  reckless  prodigality  as  men  indulge  in. 
It  is  against  their  nature.  It  hurts  them.  It 
violates  God's  law,  written  in  their  hearts.  They 
would  also  be  too  conscientious  to  do  it.  They 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  HO 

would  not  consider  the  fact  that  "  Uncle  Sam 
foots  the  bills "  a  reason  why  a  saw  should  be 
tossed  aside  on  the  first  symptom  of  dulness,  and 
a  new  one  bought.  They  would  not  throw  away 
a  half  loaf  because  there  were  plenty  of  whole 
ones,  but  keep  it  and  steam  it.  And  not  only 
would  there  be  a  great  deal  less  waste,  but  thero 
would  be  a  great  deal  better  supply.  If  women 
had  charge  of  the  commissariat,  I  do  not  believe 

O  ' 

there  would  have  been  one  half  so  much  friction 
as  there  has  been.  Hungry  regiments  would  not 

o  «/          o 

get  to  the  end  of  a  long  march  and  find  nothing  to 
eat.  Sick  soldiers  would  not  be  expected  to  recover 
health  from  salt  pork  and  muddy  coffee.  Experi- 
ence or  no  experience,  red  tape  or  no  tape,  women 
would  have  managed  to  bring  hungry  mouths  and 
hot  soups  together,  and  to  furnish  delicate  food  for 
delicate  health.  They  would  not  only  have  sup- 
plied the  soldiers  at  less  cost  to  government,  but 
the  less  cost  would  have  produced  a  larger  bill  of 
fare.  How  did  the  English  army  fare  till  Florence 
Nightingale  came  by  and  knocked  their  granary 
doors  open  ?  That  my  remarks  are  not  mere 
theory,  or  rather  that  my  theory  is  founded  on 
truth,  is  abundantly  proved  by  a  statement  printed 
in  the  North  American  Review  for  January,  1864, 
long  after  my  words  were  written.  It  is  from  an 
article  on  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

"  At  this  moment,  the  only  region  in  the  loyal  - 
Slates  that  is  definitely  out  of  the  circle  is  Mis- 


120  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

souri.  The  rest  of  our  loyal  territory  is  all  em- 
braced within  one  ring  of  method  and  federality. 
This  is  chiefly  due  to  the  wonderful  spirit  of 
nationality  that  beats  in  the  breasts  of  American 
women.  They,  even  more  than  the  men  of  the 
country,  from  their  utter  withdrawal  from  partisan 
strifes  and  local  politics,  have  felt  the  assault  upon 
the  life  of  the  nation  in  its  true  national  im- 
port. They  are  infinitely  less  State-ish,  and  more 
national  in  their  pride  and  in  their  sympathies. 
They  s-ee  the  war  in  its  broad,  impersonal  out- 
lines ;  and  while  their  p*articular  and  special  affec- 
tions are  keener  than  men's,  their  general  humanity 
and  tender  sensibility  for  unseen  and  distant  suffer- 
ings is  stronger  and  more  constant. 

"  The  women  of  the  country,  who  are  the  actual 
creators,  by  the  labor  of  their  fingers,  of  the  chief 
supplies  and  comforts  needed  by  the  soldiers,  have 
been  the  first  to  understand,  appreciate,  and  co- 
operate with  the  Sanitary  Commission.  It  is  due 
to  the  sagacity  and  zeal  with  which  they  have 
entered  into  the  work,  that  the  system  of  sup- 
plies, organized  by  the  extraordinary  genius  of 
Mr.  Olmstead,  has  become  so  broadly  and  nation- 
ally extended,  and  that,  with  Milwaukee,  Chicago, 
Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  Pittsburg,  Phila- 
delphia, New  York,  Brooklyn,  New  Haven,  Hart- 
ford, Providence,  Boston,  Portland,  and  Concord 
•  for  centres,  there  should  be  at  least  fifteen  thou- 
sand Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  all  under  the 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  121 

of  women,  combined  and  united  in  a  common 
work,  —  of  supplying,  through  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission,  the  wants  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  in  the  great  Federal  army. 

"  The  skill,  zeal,  business  qualities,  and  patient 
and  persistent  devotion  exhibited  by  those  wromen 
who  manage  the  truly  vast  operations  of  the  several 
chief  centres  of  supply,  at  Chicago,  Boston,  Cleve- 
land, Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  and  New  York,  have 
unfolded  a  new  page  in  the  history  of  the  aptitudes 
and  capacities  of  women.  To  receive,  acknowl- 
edge, sort,  arrange,  mark,  repack,  store,  hold  ready 
for  shipment,  procure  transportation  for,  and  send 
forward  at  sudden  call,  the  many  thousand  boxes 
of  hospital  stores  which,  at  the  order  of  the  Gen- 
eral Secretary  at  Washington,  have  been  for  the 
past  two  years  and  a  half  forwarded  at  various 
times  by  the  c  Women's  Central '  at  New  York, 
the  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  of  Northern  Ohio,  at 
Cleveland,  the  Branches  at  Cincinnati  and  at 
Philadelphia,  or  the  Northwestern  Branch  at 
Chicago,  has  required  business  talents  of  the  high- 
est order.  A  correspondence  demanding  infinite 
tact,  promptness,  and  method  has  been  carried 
on  with  their  local  tributaries,  by  the  women  from 
these  centres,  with  a  ceaseless  ardor,  to  which  the 
Commission  owes  a  very  large  share  of  its  success, 
and  the  nation  no  small  part  of  the  sustained 
usefulness  and  generous  alacrity  of  its  own  patri- 
otic impulses. 

6 


122  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

"  To  collect  funds  (for  the  supply  branches  have 
usually  raised  their  own  funds  from  the  immediate 
communities  in  which  they  have  been  situated) 
has  often  tasked  their  ingenuity  to  the  utmost. 
In  Chicago,  for  instance,  the  'Branch  has  lately 
held  a  fair  of  colossal  proportions,  to  which  the 
whole  Northwest  was  invited  to  send  supplies,  and 
to  come  in  mass !  On  the  26th  of  October  last, 
when  it  opened,  a  procession  of  three  miles  in 
length,  composed  of  wagon-loads  of  supplies,  and 
of  people  in  various  ways  interested,  paraded 
through  the  streets  of  Chicago ;  the  stores  being 
closed,  and  the  day  given  up  to  patriotic  sympa- 
thies. For  fourteen  days  the  fair  lasted,  and  every 
day  brought  reinforcements  of  supplies,  and  of 
people  and  purchasers.  The  country  people,  from 
hundreds  of  miles  about,  sent  in  upon  the  railroads 
all  the  various  products  of  their  farms,  mills,  and 
hands.  Those  who  had  nothing  else  sent  the 
poultry  from  their  barnyards ;  the  ox,  or  bull,  or 
calf,  from  the  stall ;  the  title-deed  of  a  few  acres 
of  land ;  so  many  bushels  of  grain,  or  potatoes,  or 
onions.  Loads  of  hay,  even,  were  sent  in  from 
ten  or  a  dozen  miles  out,  and  sold  at  once  in  the 
hay-market.  On  the  roads  entering  the  city  were 
seen  rickety  and  lumbering  wagons,  made  of 
poles,  loaded  with  mixed  freight,  —  a  fewr  cabba- 
ges, a  bundle  of  socks,  a  coop  of  tame  ducks,  a 
few  barrels  of  turnips,  a  pot  of  butter,  and  a  bag 
of  beans,  —  with  the  proud  and  humane  farmer 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  123 

driving  the  team,  his  wife  behind  in  charge  of 
the  baby,  while  two  or  three  little  children  con- 
tended with  the  boxes  and  barrels  and  bundles 
for  room  to  sit  or  lie.  Such  were  the  evidences 
of  devotion  and  self-sacrificing  zeal  the  North- 
western farmers  gave,  as  in  their  long  trains  of 
wagons  they  trundled  into  Chicago,  from  twenty 
and  thirty  miles'  distance,  and  unloaded  their  con- 
tents at  the  doors  of  the  Northwestern  Fairs,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com- 
mission. The  mechanics  and  artisans  of  the  towns 
and  cities  were  not  behind  the  farmers.  Each 
manufacturer  sent  his  best  piano,  plough,  thresh- 
ing-machine, or  sewing-machine.  Every  form  of 
agricultural  implement,  and  every  product  of  me- 
chanical skill,  was  represented.  From  the  watch- 
maker's jewelry  to  horseshoes  and  harness  ;  from 
lace,  cloth,  cotton  and  linen,  to  iron  and  steel ; 
from  wooden  and  waxen  and  earthen  ware,  to 
butter  and  cheese,  bacon  and  beef;  —  nothing 
came  amiss,  and  nothing  failed  to  come,  and  the 
ordering  of  all  this  was  in  the  hands  of  women. 
They  fed  in  the  restaurant,  under  *  the  Fair,'  at  fifty 
cents  a  meal  —  fifteen  hundred  mouths  a  day,  for  a 
fortnight  —  from  food  furnished,  cooked,  and  served 
by  the  women  of  Chicago  ;  and  so  orderly  and 
convenient,  so  practical  and  wise  were  the  arrange- 
ments, that,  day  by  day,  they  had  just  what  they 
had  ordered  and  what  they  counted  on,  —  always 
enough*  and  never  too  much.  They  divided  the 


124  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

houses  of  the  town,  and  levied  on  No.  16  A  Street, 
for  five  turkeys,  on  Monday;  No.  37  B  Street,  for 
twelve  apple-pies,  on  Tuesday ;  No.  49  C  Street,  for 
forty  pounds  of  roast  beef,  on  Wednesday ;  No. 
23  D  Street  was  to  furnish  so  much  pepper  on 
Thursday ;  No.  33  E  Street,  so  much  salt  on  Fri- 
day. In  short,  every  preparation  was  made  in 
advance,  at  the  least  inconvenience  possible  to 
the  people,  to  distribute  in  the  most  equal  manner 
the  welcome  burden  of  feeding  the  visitors  at  the 
fair,  at  the  expense  of  the  good  people  of  Chicago, 
but  for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Com- 
mission. Hundreds  of  lovely  young  girls,  in  sim- 
ple uniforms,  took  their  places  as  waiters  behind 
the  vast  array  of  tables,  and  everybody  was  as  well 
served  as  at  a  first-class  hotel,  at  a  less  expense 
to  himself,  and  with  a  great  profit  to  the  fair. 
Fifty  thousand  dollars,  it  is  §aid,  will  be  the  least 
net  return  of  this  gigantic  fair  to  the  treasury  of 
the  Branch  at  Chicago.  It  is  universally  conceded 
that  to  Mrs.  Livermore  and  Mrs.  Hoge,  old  and 

O     ' 

tried  friends  of  the  soldier  and  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  and  its  ever  active  agents,  are  due 
the  planning,  management,  and  success  of  this 
truly  American  exploit.  What  is  the  value  of 
the  money  thus  raised,  important  as  it  is,  when 
compared  with  the  worth  of  the  spirit  manifested, 
the  loyalty  exhibited,  the  patriotism  stimulated, 
the  example  set,  the  prodigious  tide  of  national 
Devotion  put  in  motion  !  How  can  rebellion  hope 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  125 

to  succeed  in  the  face  of  such  demonstrations  as 
the  Northwester"  Fair  ?  They  are  bloodless  bat- 
tles, equal  in  significance  and  results  to  Vicksburg 
and  Gettysburg,  to  New  Orleans  and  Newbern." 
Men,  have  you  read  this  paragraph  ?  Please  to 
read  it  again  !  Think  of  all  your  inveighing  against 
female  extravagance  and  incapacity,  and  read  it  yet 
again.  Put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  read  it 
aloud  to  your  wife,  to  your  mother,  to  your  daugh- 
ter, to  your  sister,  to  your  grandmother,  to  your 
aunt,  to  your  niece,  to  your  mother-in-law,  and 
all  your  relatives-in-law,  and  to  every  woman  who 
suffers  your  presence,  and  then  lay  your  hand  on 
your  mouth,  and  your  mouth  in  the  dust,  and  cry, 
"  Woe  is  me  !  for  I  am  undone."  Inexperience  ? 
Had  Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore  any  more  ex- 
perience in  feeding  fifteen  hundred  mouths  a  day 
than  the  quartermaster  of  a  regiment  ?  Have  the 
women  of  Chicago  generally  devoted  their  lives  to 
trafficking  in  tame  ducks,  loads  of  hay,  threshing- 
machines,  and  beef  and  bacon?  Yet  you  have 
the  very  essence  of  business  tact  in  "nothing 
came  amiss,  and  nothing  failed  to  come  " ;  and  the 
very  essence  of  economy  in  "  always  enough,  and 
never  too  much"  ;  and  the  crowning  glory— write 
it  on  the  posts  of  thy  house,  and  on  thy  gates ; 
teach  it  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  talk  of  it 
when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down, 
and  when  thou  risest  up ,  bind  it  for  a  sign  upon 


126  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

thine  hand,  and  let  it  be  as  a  frontlet  between 
thine  eyes  —  "  the  ordering  of  all  this  was  in  the 
hands  of  women." 

This  ascription  of  female  extravagance,  whether 
made  publicly  in  newspapers  or  privately  in  family 
conclave,  is  not  only  false  and  fatal,  but  it  is  fatal 
in  the  very  innermost  and  vital  points  of  life. 
What  is  destroyed  is  not  an  adventitious  thing, 
but  the  spring  of  all  satisfaction.  The  relations 
between  a  man  and  his  wife  decide  the  weal  of  his 
life.  The  whole  chain  of  his  circumstances  can  be 
no  stronger  than  the  link  between  him  and  her. 
He  may  be  ever  so  rich  or  renowned,  but  he  can 
bear  no  heavier  weight  of  happiness  than  that  link 
can  sustain.  The  newspaper  paragraphs  do  the 
harm  of  confirming  individual  men  in  their  notions 
that  it  is  the  wife  who  incurs  the  unnecessary  ex- 
pense, and  so  divert  their  attention  from  their  own 
duties,  and  urge  them  on  in  their  evil  courses  to 
their  own  undoing.  But  a  man  is  just  as  powerful 
for  good  as  he  is  for  evil.  By  as  much  as  he  can 
alienate  his  wife  from  himself  by  his  petty  finan- 
ciering, by  so  much  can  he  draw  her  to  his  heart 
by  a  gentle  chivalry.  Invested  by  the  law  with 
power,  he  has  only  to  transmute  it  into  love  to 
secure  a  loyalty  capable  of  any  sacrifice.  Let  a 
wife  read  in  her  husband's  face  and  bearing  how 
)  grateful  is  her  society,  how  precious  her  life,  how 
s  sweetest  of  all  pleasures  to  him  is  the  knowledge 
of  her  pleasure  ;  let  her  feel  that  she  is  to  him 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  127 

something  different  from  all  earthly  interests,  — 
something  above  and  beyond  all  other  joys  ;  let 
her  see  that,  with  her  coming,  money  ceased  to  be 
mere  current  coin,  that  labor  acquired  a  new  dig- 
nity, and  prudence  a  new  charm,  because  they  all 
might  minister  to  her  convenience  or  delight ;  let 
her  see  that  she  adjusts,  harmonizes,  and  completes 
his  life;  that  she  is  the  central  sun,  about  which 
all  minor  interests  and  plans  revolve  ;  and —  what 
have  you  gained  ?  A  good  housekeeper  ?  A 
well-ordered  household  ?  More  than  this.  An 
empire.  Supreme  dominion.  You  have  only  to 
be  tender  and  true,  and  nothing  can  sweep  away 
the  golden  mist  through  which,  whatever  you 
may  be  to  others,  you  shall  appear  to  her  eyes 
a  knight  without  fear  and  without  reproach. 

Wrong  opinions  concerning  the  relations  be- 
tween husband  and  wife  are  also  occasionally  ex- 
pressed in  another  and  opposite  manner.  A  wife 
comes  into  the  possession  of  property.  The  hus- 
band, determined  not  to  encroach  upon  her  rights, 
leaves  the  disposal  of  the  property  to  her.  He 
insists  that  it  shall  be  invested  in  her  name.  He 
will  take  no  responsibility  as  to  the  mode  of  invest- 
ment. This  may  be  done  from  honorable  motives. 
The  man  means  to  be  just  and  blameless  ;  and  if 
he  is  conscious  of  innate  weakness  or  wickedness, 
or  if  the  marriage  be  an  ill-assorted  one,  he  may 
be  pursuing  the  best  course.  There  may  also  be 
outside,  merely  business  reasons  which  make  it  the 


128  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 


best  course.  But  to  do  it  simply  from  a  notion  of 
justice,  is  as  far  as  possible  from  what  ought  to  be. 
The  man  shows  himself  entirely  at  fault  regarding 
the  range  of  justice.  If  life  were  what  it  should 
be,  the  law  would  be  right  in  recognizing  for  the 

7  o          .  O  o 

woman  no  existence  separate  from  her  husband. 
Love  is  but  the  fulfilling  of  that  law.  The  reason 
why  such  a  law  is  unjust  is,  that  life  is  so  constant 
a  violation  of  the  higher  spiritual  law,  that  this 
lower  one  which  embodies  it  works  mischief.  It 
fits  the  righteous  theory  only,  not  the  wicked  facts. 
But  law  is  for  the  evil,  not  for  the  good.  There 
is  no  enactment  that  a  man  shall  possess  his  own 
property.  The  enactments  are  to  punish  those 
who  attempt  to  wrest  his  property  from  him. 
There  need  be  no  enactment  that  a  man  shall  be 
master  of  his  wife's  possessions ;  he  has  but  to  be 
to  her  a  true  husband,  and  all  that  she  has  is  his. 
The  law  should  punish  him  for  neglect  of  duty  and 
disregard  of  claims,  by  a  forfeiture  of  property. 
If  the  law  this  day  completely  reversed  the  posi- 
tion of  husband  and  wife,  it  would  make  no  jot  or 
tittle  of  change  in  their  actual  position,  where  they 
love  each  other  as  they  ought.  Women  naturally 
have  a  distaste  to  business,  and  an  indifference  to 
money.  Of  their  own  motion,  they  would  leave 
such  things  in  the  hands  of  men,  if  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation  did  not  force  them  to  interference. 
In  addition  to  this  generic  negative  willingness,  the 
happy  wife  has  a  positive  delight  in  enriching  with 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  129 

every  blessing  the  man  she  loves.  When  Aurora 
gave  her  love  with  all  lavishment,  and  prayed 
Romney, 

"  If  now  you  Jd  stoop  so  low  to  take  my  love, 
And  use  it  roughly,  without  stint  or  spare, 
As  men  use  common  things  with  more  behind, 
To  any  mean  and  ordinary  end,  — 
The  joy  would  set  me  like  a  star,  in  heaven, 
So  high  up,  I  should  shine  because  of  height 
And  not  of  virtue/'  — 

did  she  make  a  mental  reservation  to  herself  of  the 
money  which  her  books  had  brought  her  ? 

What  the  law  should  do,  is  to  step  in  and  guard 
woman  against  the  possible  disastrous  consequen- 
ces which  may  spring  from  the  spontaneous  self- 
abnegation  of  lo ye.  What  it  should  not  do,  is  to 
guarantee  to  the  miser,  the  spendthrift,  the  tyrant, 
debauchee,  or  vampire,  the  things  which  a  man 
would  possess  of  his  own  inalienable  right.  What 
a  husband  should  do,  is  to  show  himself  great 
enough  and  good  enough  to  know  and  feel  that,  in 
love,  giving  and  receiving  wear  the  selfsame  grace. 
What  he  should  not  do,  is  to  talk  of  justice  when 
thev  twain  should  be  one  flesh. 


6* 


VIII. 


rank  in  life  depends  entirely 
on  what  life  is.  Her  importance  is 
decided  when  it  is  decided  what  ser- 
vice is  important.  If  money  is  the 
one  thing,  needful,  and  its  acquisition  the  chief  end 
of  man,  the  wife's  position  is  very  inferior  to  her 
husband's.  The  greater  part  of  the  money  is 
earned  in  his,  and  often  spent  in  her  department. 
;  He  does  the  work  that  is  paid  for,  and  he  belongs  * 
to  the  sex  that  is  paid.  She  does  the  work  that  is 
not  paid  for,  and  she  belongs  to  the  sex  that  is 
pillaged.  Men  go  out  and. gain  money :  wives  stay 
at  home  and  spend  it.  The  case  is  against  them 
—  if  that  is  the  whole  case.  But  if  money  is  only 
means  to  an  end ;  if  happiness,  intelligence,  integ- 
rity, are  more  worth  than  gold  ;  if  a  life  ruled  by 
the  law  of  God,  if  the  development  of  the  divine 
in  the  human,  if  the  education  of  every  faculty, 
and  the  enjoyment  of  every  power,  be  more  love- 
ly and  more  desirable  than  bank  stock,  then  the 
woman  walks  not  one  whit  behind  the  man,  but 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  131 

Bide  by  side,  with  no  unequal  steps.  He  furnishes 
and  she  fashions  the  material  from  which  grace 
and  strength  are  wrought.  Her  work  is  in  point 
of  fact  incomparably  fairer,  finer,  more  difficult, 
more  important  than  his.  It  is  not  money-getting 
alone,  or  chiefly,  but  money-spending,  that  influ- 
ences and  indicates  character.  A  man  may  work 
up  to  his  knees  in  swamp-meadows,  or  breathe  all 
day  the  foul  air  of  a  court-room ;  but  if,  when  re- 
leased, he  turns  naturally  to  sunshine  and  apple- 
orchards  and  womanly  grace,  swamp-mud  and  vile 
air  have  not  polluted  him.  He  is  a  clean-souled 
man  through  it  all.  But  if  a  man  find  rest  from 
his  work  in  mere  eating  and  drinking,  if  the  money 
which  he  has  earned  goes  to  gross  amusements 
and  coarse  companions,  he  shows  at  once  the  low- 
ness  of  his  character,  however  high  may  be  his 
^occupation. 

Those  hands  which  have  the  ordering  of  house 

o 

and  home,  have  a  large  share  in  fhe  ordering  of 
character.  The  man  who  provides  the  house  does 
an  important  part,  but  she  who  refines  it  into  a 
home  is  the  true  artist.  To  whom  is  the  palm 
awarded,  to  the  painter  who,  from  ochre  and  lead, 
lays  on  the  rough  canvas  the  lovely  landscape, 
touched  with  a  beauty  borrowed  from  his  own  sou], 
or  the  huckster  who  sells  him  ochre,  lead,  and 
canvas,  or  even  the  successful  shoddy-contractor 
who  pays  five  thousand  of  his  Judas  Iscariot  dol- 
lars, that  he  may  hang  it  in  a  bad  light  in  his  din- 


132  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

ing-room  till  such  day  as  he  shall  have  the  grace  to 
go  and  hang  himself?  It  has  been  said  that  in  the 
highest  departments  women  have  never  produced 
a  masterpiece.  Painting  has  its  old  masters,  but 
no  old  mistresses.  Jenny  Lind  may  entrance  the 
world  from  her  "  heaven-kissing  hill,"  but  on  the 
mountain-tops  Mendelssohn  and  Beethoven  stand 
uncompanioned.  Sappho  plumed  her  wings,  but 
plunged  quickly  from  the  Leucadian  cliff,  and  Mil- 
ton soars  steadfastly  to  the  sun  alone.  We  shall 
see  about  this  one  day,  but  meanwhile  life  itself 
is  higher  than  any  of  the  arts  of  life,  and  in  living 
no  man  has  risen  to  loftier  heights  than  a  woman, 
and  the  mass  of  men  are  infinitely  lower  than  the 
mass  of  women,  and  would  be  lower  still  if  it  were 
not  for  female  assistance.  With  all  the  help  which 
they  receive  from  women,  they  are  perpetually 
lapsing  into  brutality,  and  whenever  they  go  off 
into  a  community  by  themselves,  they  go  headlong 
downwards,  following  their  natural  gravitation. 

It  is  women  that  make  men  fit  to  live.  They 
often  confess  it  themselves  without  meaning  any- 
thing by  it.  I  take  advantage  of  the  confession  ; 
as  the  malignant  Minister  in  Titan  "  retained  the 
habit,  when  an  open-hearted  soul  showed  him  its 
breaches,  of  marching  in  upon  it  through  those 
breaches,  as  if  he  himself  had  made  them."  In 
toasts  and  festive  speeches  none  can  be  more  bland 
than  they.  With  sweet  and  smiling,  arch  and 
gracious  humility,  they  dwell  upon  the  refining 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  133 

jmd  elevating  influence  of  "  lovely  woman,"  as  if 
it  were  a  pretty  thing  to  be  growling  and  snappish 
and  stroked  into  quiescence  and  acquiescence  by  a 
soft  hand,  —  as  if  a  midsummer-night's  dream  were 
a  midwinter-day's  truth,  and  man  were  content  to 
be  Bottom  the  weaver,  with  his  ass's  head  stuck 
full  with  musk-roses  by  fairy  Titanias.  But  I  say 
it  not  as  a  man  gallantly  towards  women,  nor  as  a 
woman  angrily  towards  men,  but  as  a  simple  state- 
ment of  fact  by  an  unconcerned  spectator,  and  far 
more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger.  What  is  proffered 
as  compliment  I  accept  and  reproduce  as  truth, 
and  if  men  will  not  stand  convicted  of  false  dealing, 
let  them  show  their  faith  by  their  works,  and  yield 
themselves,  plastic  and  unresisting,  to  the  hands 
that  will  mould  them  to  fairest  shapes. 

Over  against  this  mistaken  notion  stands  its 
opponent  notion,  equally  mistaken,  more  exten- 
sive, circulated  by  men,  adopted  by  women,  and 
doing  its  mischievous  work  silently  and  surely. 
Public  opinion,  floating  about  in  novels  and  peri- 
odicals, lays  upon  the  shoulders  of  women  burdens 
which  they  are  not  able  to  bear,  which  they  were 
never  intended  to  bear,  and  which  ought  never  to 
be  laid  upon  them.  Before  marriage,  society  agrees 
to  make  men  grasp  the  laboring  oar.  They  must 
choose  and  woo  and  win ;  while  the  woman's 
strength  is  to  sit  still.  But  after  marriage  the 
scene  suddenly  shifts.  The  wife  must  take  the 
wooing  and  winning  into  her  hands.  She  must 


134  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

make  home  pleasant.  She  must  rear  the  children. 
She  must  manage  society.  She  must  incur  the 
responsibility  of  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the 
family.  The  husband  is  on  the  one  side  a  wild 
animal  who  must  be  managed  but  not  controlled ; 
on  the  other,  a  piece  of  rare  china,  which  must 
be  carefully  handled  and  kept  from  all  rough  con- 
tact. 

"  It  is  the  wife  who  makes  the  home,  and  the 
home  makes  the  man,"  says  the  country  news- 
paper, in  its  domestic  column. 

"  If  a  wife  would  make  the  husband  delighted 
with  home,  she  must  first  make  home  delightful. 
She  must  first  woo  him  there  by  all  the  arts  of 
affection,  —  by  cheerfulness,  tidiness,  orderliness 
without  excess :  by  a  clean-swept  hearth,  a  bright 
fire,  flowers  upon  the  mantel,  a  well-set  table*  and 
well-cooked  food.  She  must  be  careful  of  impos- 
ing restraints  upon  his  tastes,  inclinations,  move- 
ments, and  render  him  free  of  every  suspicion  of 
domestic  imprisonment.  If  his  masculine  ta?tes, 
as  they  will,  draw  him  from  home  at  times,  to  *he 
club,  to  the  lodge,  or  the  political  meeting  or 
elsewhere,  let  her  second  them  with  that  ready 
cheerfulness  which  will  prove  one  of  the  strong 
cords  to  draw  him  back  to  home  as  the  centre  -°f 
his  earthly  joys,"  says  its  virtuous  neighbor. 

"  I  have  heard  women  speak  of  their  rights.  If 
Jiey  had  made  the  men  of  the  world  what  God 
intended  they  should  make  of  them,  there  wocld 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  135 

have  been  no  need  of  this  complaining,"  says  the 
orthodox  heroine  in  the  orthodox  novel. 

"  What  makes  a  man  feel  at  home  in  the  house  ? 

Is  it  to  leave  him  absolute  master  of  his 

rightful  position,  the  large  liberty  to  go  and  come, 
trusting  for  her  part  religiously  in  the  virtue  and 
the  sovereign  power  of  her  love,  —  knowing,  as  if 
she  had  read  it  out  of  Holy  Writ,  for  her  own  heart 
has  told  her  "  (her  being  the  heroine  aforemen- 
tioned, now  become  the  hero's  wife)  "  that,  if  she 
shall  ever  cease  to  hold  the  love  and  trust  which 
she  has  won,  the  fault,  as  the  loss,  is  hers  ?  " 

"  She  "  (she  being  the  aforesaid  orthodox  heroine 
and  orthodox  submissive  wife,  now  become  the 
orthodox  devoted  mother),  —  "  She  had  the  con- 
sciousness that  it  was  hers  to  make  of  this  child 
what  she  would !  " 

I  have  spoken  before  of  the  comparative  work 
of  the  husband  and  wife,  considered  merely  as 
labor.  I  refer  now  to  the  comparative  moral 
weight  belonging  to  their  respective  positions. 

All  masculine  and  all  orthodox  feminine  trac- 
tates on  female  education,  all  male  lectures  on 
female  duties,  all  anniversary  orators  to  female 
schools,  ring  the  changes  on  the  importance  of 
educating  girls  to  be  good  wives  and  mothers, 
with  the  persistency  of  the  old  song  which  shut- 
tled back  and  forth  some  twenty  times  or  more 
to  tell  us  that  "  John  Brown  had  a  little  Indian.'' 
But  were  the  graduating  class  of  a  college  ever 


13G  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

exhorted  to  be  good  husbands  and  fathers  ?  Are 
fathers  ever  admonished  to  teach  their  sons  do- 
mestic virtues,  to  make  them  fond  and  faithful 
and  good  providers  for  the  wives  they  may  one 
day  possess  ?  But  I  should  like  to  know  if  girls 
have  any  stronger  tendency  to  become  wives  and 
mothers,  than  the  boys  have  to  become  husbands 
and  fathers  ?  Are  they  any  more  likely  to  be  bad 
wives  and  mothers,  than  boys, are  to  be  bad  hus- 
bands and  fathers  ?  Is  the  number  of  incompetent 
wives  obviously  greater  than  the  number  of  incom- 
petent husbands  ?  Is  the  number  of  injudicious 
mothers  obviously  greater  than  the  number  of 
injudicious  fathers  ?  And  where  the  wife  and 
mother  is  incompetent  and  injudicious,  does  it 
generally  seem  to  be  owing  to  too  great  strength 
of  mind  and  culture  of  intellect,  and  too  little  do- 
mestic education,  or  is  it  owing  to  weakness  of 

7  O 

character  ?  It  is  not  a  remote,  but  it  seems  to  be 
an  entirely  unobserved  truth,  that  for  every  wife 
there  is  a  husband,  and  for  every  mother  there  is 
a  father ;  and  so  far  as  my  observation  extends, 
domestic  mismanagement  and  unhappiness,  in  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  cases,  are  owing  to  the 
shortcomings  of  the  husband,  and  not  of  the  wife, 
or  to  the  wife  in  an  inferior  and  resultant  measure. 
"  There  is  blame  on  both  sides,''  say  the  observers, 
oracularly,  and  this  most  superficial  of  all  super- 
ficial generalizations  is  supposed  to  be  an  impartial 
and  exhaustive  summary.  It  is  just  as  much  a 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  137 

summary  as  the  statement  that  two  and  two  make 
four.  Two  and  two  do  make  four,  but  it  is  nothing 
to  the  purpose  here.  To  say  that  there  is  blame 
on  both  sides,  is  simply  saying  that  neither  a  man 
nor  a  woman  is  perfect,  which  nobody  ever  main- 
tained. So  long  as  humanity  is  humanity,  it  is 
not  probable  that  one  person  will  be  entirely  sin- 
less and  another  entirely  sinful ;  but  there  are, 
and  will  continue  to  be,  many  cases  in  which  the 
blame  on  one  side  is  much  more  heavy  and  con- 
demning than  the  blame  on  the  other.  The  man's 
blame  is  most  often  one  of  aggression,  of  the  first 
provocation,  of  unprincipled  and  heartless  behav- 
ior, of  cruel'  disappointing  and  thwarting,  of  a 
giant's  strength  used  giantly.  The  woman's  is  a 
blame  of  imprudence,  of  weakness,  of  disappoint- 
ment, unwisely  met  and  impatiently  or  otherwise 
ill-borne  ;  of  an  inability  to  manage  with  saga- 
city, and  so  to  master  by  superior  moral  power 
the  wild  beast  that  has  clutched  her,  —  a  blame 
that  is  negative  rather  than  positive,  passive 
rather  than  active,  and  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  other  in  point  of  heinousness.  Why,  then,  do 
you  bear  down  so  hard  on  the  woman's  duty  and 
leave  the  man  to  go  his  way  unadmonished  ?  If 
you  do  not  enforce  on  college-boys  the  duty  of 
providing  for  their  future  families,  why  do  you 
enforce  on  seminary-girls  the  duty  of  directing 
Vheir  future  families  ?  If  you  do  not  educate 
young  men  to  make  good  husbands,  why  should 


138  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

you  educate  young  women  to  make  good  wives  ? 
If  you  do  not  exhort  .young  men  so  to  live  and 
learn  as  to  make  their  wives  happy  and  train  their 
children  aright,  why  should  you  exhort  young 
women  to  study  to  make  their  husbands  happy 
and  train  their  children  aright  ?  Because,  you 
say,  in  the  words  already  quoted,  "It  is  the  wife 
that  makes  the  home,  and  the  home  makes  the 
man."  It  is  nothing  of  the  sort.  It  is  the  wife 
land  the  husband  together  that  make  the  home, 
land  the  man  was  already  made.  The  most  that 
wife  and  home  *in  conjunction  can  do  is  to  mod- 
ify the  man.  If  a  husband  be  intemperate,  or 
given  over  to  money-getting,  or  money-saving, 
or  mop^y-spending,  —  if  he  be  ill-tempered,  indel- 
icate, ignorant,  obstinate,  arrogant,  —  no  wife,  be 
she  ever  so  prudent,  wise,  affectionate,  can  make 
the  home  what  it  ought  to  be.  At  best  she  can 
only  mend  it.  Her  energies  are  wasted.  The 
ingenuity,  the  love,  the  care,  that  should  be  ex- 
pended in  making  it  happy  are  sacrificed  in  the 
attempt  to  make  it  as  little  unhappy  as  possible. 
With  the  best  of  husbands  and  the  best  of  wives 
there  are  always  evils  enough  lying  in  wait. 
Danger,  disease,  sin,  are  ever  ready  to  spring  upon 
the  happy  home,  even  when  both  the  keepers 
stand  guard  at  the  portals  ;  how,  then,  can  you 
expect  the  wife  to  ward  off  even  her  own  part  of 
these,  when  you  lay  upon  her  the  husband's  part, 
and  he  himself  is  the  greatest  evil  of  all  ? 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  139 

And  what  right  have  men  to  depend  upon  homo 
and  wife  to  "make"  them?  What  is  a  man  do- 
ing all  the  twenty  or  thirty  years  before  he  is  mar- 
ried, that  he  has  not  made  himself?  And  on  what 
grounds  does  he  come  to  her  for  completion  ? 
HowT  came  she  to  be  any  more  finished  than 
he  ?  or  any  more  capable  of  putting  the  finishing 
touches  to  another?  Are  wives  generally  mature 
and  experienced,  while  husbands  are  young  and  in- 
experienced ?  Have  wives  generally  more  knowl- 
edge of  the  world,  and  more  opportunities  to  be- 
come self-possessed  and  firmly  and  evenly  balanced 
than  husbands  ?  Or  is  the  masculine  material 
naturally  and  permanently  more  plastic  than  the 
feminine  ?  Let  us  know  the  pretext  upon  which 
a  full-grown  man  charges  a  delicate  woman,  who 
has  had  little  if  anything  to  do  with  him  until  he 
became  a  full-grown  man,  with  the  cure  of  his  soul  ? 
If  there  is  anything  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  edu- 
cation and  reformation,  one  would  naturally  sup- 
pose that  it  is  the  stronger  sex  which  should  edu- 
cate and  reform  the  weaker.  It  would  seem  as  if 
the  sex  that  is  looked  up  to  and  sets  itself  up  as 
sovereign  should  mould  the  sex  which  looks  up 
and  recognizes  it  as  sovereign.  Where,  in  the 
Bible,  does  a  man  find  any  warrant  for  laying  him- 
self to  the  account  of  his  wife  ?  When  God  calls 
every  man  to  judgment,  will  he  be  able  to  pass 
over  his  shortcomings  to  his  wife  ?  The  first  man 
tried  it,  but  with  very  small  success.  "  The  woman 


140  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

whom  thou  gavest  to  be  with  me,"  whimpered 
Adam ;  but  it  was  a  sorry  refuge  of  lies,  and  did 
not  avail  to  stay  the  curse  from  descending  heavily 
upon  his  head.  The  plea  that  did  not  avail  the 
first  man  is  not  likely  to  avail  the  last,  nor  any 
man  between.  "If  thou  art  wise,  thou  art  wise  for 
thyself,  but  if  thou  scornest,  thou  alone  shalt  bear 
it."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  the  wife  makes 
the  husband  nor  the  husband  the  wife,  but  they 
both  influence  each  other.  She  softens  him  and 
he  strengthens  her;  or  if,  as  not  unfrequently 
happens,  her  nature  is  the  stronger,  she  commu- 
nicates to  him  of  its  strength.  In  a  true  mar- 
riage, delicacy  is  imparted  on  the  one  side  and 
vigor  on  the  other,  to  whichever  side  they  origi- 
nally belonged.  Where  the  union  is  founded 
upon  truth,  there  is  always  a  tendency  to  equi- 
librium, woman  supplying  the  spiritual,  man  the 
material  element.  She  raises  a  mortal  to  the 
skies ;  he  draws  an  angel  down.- 

And  no  more  than  it  belongs  to  the  wife  to 
make  the  home  and  the  husband,  does  it  belong  to 
the  mother  to  train  up  the  children  in  the  way 
they  should  go.  The  family  is  a  joint-stock  con- 
cern, so  established  both  by  nature  and  revelation. 
Where,  in  the  Bible,  do  we  find*  that  the  mother 
can  make  of  her  child  what  she  will,  or  that  God 
gave  the  making  of  the  men  of  the  world  into  her 
hand  ?  In  Holy  Writ,  the  father's  duties  loom  up 
as  largely  as  the  mother's,  and  if  there  is  any  dif- 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  141 

ference  it  is  not  one  that  discriminates  in  his  favor 
or  in  favor  of  his  release  from  duty.  Fathers  and 
mothers  in  the  Bible  receive  equal  honor  and 
equal  deference,  but  the  instruction  and  guidance 
of  the  children  are  much  more  definitely  and  re- 
peatedly attributed  to  and  inculcated  upon  and  im- 
plied as  belonging  to  the  father  than  the  mother. 
He  is  recognized  as  the  head.  At  his  door  lies  the 
responsibility.  Ahaziah  walked  in  the  ways  of  his 
mother,  but  of  his  father  also  when  he  did  evil  in 
the  sight  of  the  Lord.  It  is  the  sins  of  the  fathers, 
not  of  the  mothers,  that  are  visited  upon  the  chil- 
dren. It  was  the  fathers,  not  the  mothers,  who 
were  to  make  known  to  the  children  the  truth  of 
Jehovah.  It  was  the  instruction  of  his  father  that 
Solomon  commanded  his  son  to  hear,  and  the  law 
of  his  mother  which  he  commanded  him  not  to 
forsake, —  an  arrangement  which  modern  opinions 
seem  inclined  to  reverse.  It  is  the  fathers  who 
are  pronounced  to  be  the  glory  of  children,  not  the 
mothers  ;  and  glory  implies  action.  A  father  may 
die,  and  his  dying  prayer  and  his  conscientious  life, 
both  commending  his  family  to  God,  may  descend 
upon  them  in  ever-renewing  blessing.  Such  is  the 
promise  of  the  Lord.  A  father  may  neglect  his 
children,  and  the  mother's  care  and  love  be  so 
blessed  of  Heaven  that  they  shall  be  burning  and 
shining  lights  in  the  temple  of  the  Most  High. 
But  this  is  God's  uncovenanted  mercy,  and  the 
father  has  no  right  to  expect  it.  Yet  one  not  sel 


142  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

dom  hears  or  sees  anecdotes  which  imply  that  such 
neglect  of  children  is  not  a  crime,  —  a  crime  against 
children,  against  mothers,  against  society,  against 
God.  In  times  of  financial  disaster  I  have  more 
than  once  heard  of  men's  consoling  themselves  for 
the  ruin  of  their  business  by  playfully  declaring 
that  they  should  now  go  home  and  get  acquainted 
with  their  children.  But  the  non-acquaintance 
with  children,  of  which  many  fathers  are  guilty,  is 
not  a  theme  to  be  lightly  spoken  of.  Is  it  a  small 
thing  to  give  life  to  a  soul  that  can  never  die  ;  that, 
through  unending  ages,  in  happiness  or  in  mis- 
ery, clothed  with  glory  or  with  shame,  beautiful, 
strong,  upright,  or  disfigured  and  deformed,  must 
live  on  and  on  and  on,  forever  and  forever  ?  Is 
it  a  small  thing  to  give  life  to  a  sentient  being,  that 
must  know  even  the  experience  of  this  world? 
.That  may  be  bowed  down  with  guilt,  remorse, 
wretchedness,  bringing  other  souls  with  it  to  the 
dust,  or  may  be  upborne  through  a  pure,  happy, 
and  beneficent  career,  bearing  other  souls  with  it 
to  the  skies  ?  How  dare  a  man  look  upon  these 
helpless,  hapless  souls,  and  know  that  to  him  they 
owe  their  being,  with  all  its  dread  possibilities  ; 
that  upon  him  may  fall  the  curse  of  their  ruined 
lives,  and  —  neglect  them  ?  How  dare  he  leave 
them  to  another  ?  To  no  other  do  they  belong. 
His  duty  he  cannot  delegate.  After  country, 
which  includes  all  things,  his  first  duty  is  to  hia^ 
family.  He  is  a  father,  and  at  no  price  can  he  sel> 
his  fatherhood.  . 
. 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  143 

I  see  notices  of  Female  Prayer-Meetings.  The 
mothers  of  a  regiment  assemble  to  pray  for  their 
sons  who  have  gone  to  the  war.  There  are  Moth- 
ers'  Guides  and  Mothers'  Assistants  and  Mothers' 
Hymn-Books.  But  where  are  the  Fathers'  Hymn- 
Books  ?  Where  are  the  Paternal  Prayer-Meet- 
ings ?  When  do  the  Fathers  of  Regiments  as- 
semble to  pray  for  their  soldier-sons  ?  If  boys 
need  their  mothers'  prayers,  they  need  also  their 
fathers'  prayers.  Does  the  fervent,  effectual  prayer 
of  righteous  wromen  avail  so  much  that  righteous 
men  can  feel  they  have  nothing  to  do  but  give 
themselves  up  to  their  farms  and  their  merchan- 
dise, to  buy  and  to  sell  and  to  get  gain  ?  Can 
men  wait  upon  the  Lord  by  proxy  ?  Shall  we 
bring  political  economy  into  religion,  and  arrange  a 
wise  division  of  labor  by  which  the  wife  shall  serve 
God,  and  the  husband  shall  serve  Mammon,  —  the 
wife  do  the  praying  and  the  husban<J  see  to  the 
marketing,  —  he  make  sure  of  this  world  and  she 
look  out  for  the  next  ?  It  is  a  nice  little  arrange- 
ment, but  —  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall 
laugh ;  the  Lord  shall  have  it  in  derision. 

But  fathers  must  attend  to  their  business.  They 
must  earn  money  to  support  the  family.  They 
must  provide  wherewith  to  keep  the  pot  boiling.. 
Certainly  they  must ;  but  it  requires  no  more 
time,  or  attention,  or  ingenuity,  or  vitality,  or 
strength,  or  spirits,  or  endurance,  no  more  ex- 
penditure of  any  of  the  forces  of  life,  to  go  out  and 


144  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

earn  something  to  put  into  the  pot,  than  it  does  to 
stay  at  home  and  boil  it.  If  the  mother,  with  her 
harassing  cares,  the  never-ending  details  of  her 
never-ending  work,  can  find  time  for  studying  her  < 
maternal  relations  and  responsibilities,  and  com- 
paring her  experience  with  that  of  others  for  pur- 
poses of  improvement  and  the  highest  efficiency, 
and  for  joining  in  social  prayer  for  the  blessing  of 
God  on  her  efforts,  the  father  can  find  time  for  sim- 
ilar study,  effort,  and  prayer.  If  she  can  leave  her 
baby,  he  can  leave  his  books.  If  she  can  leave  her 
kitchen,  he  can  leave  his  counting-room.  His 
bench,  his  desk,  his  fields,  his  office,  are  no  more 
exacting  than  her  nursery,  her  laundry,  her  work- 
basket.  Women  will  go  to  the  mothers'  meeting 
who  have  to  sit  up  till  one  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing to  darn  the  little  frock,  and  patch  the  old  coat 
that  must  be  worn  that  day ;  and  sometimes  they 
do  it  from  stern  necessity,  without  having  the  con- 
solation of  any  mothers'  meeting  to  go  to.  Let 
men  but  be  as  earnest  in  their  purpose,  as  sincere 
in  their  belief,  let  them  feel  that  the  souls  of  their 
children  are  in  their  hands  as  keenly  as  mothers 
feel  their  responsibility,  and  business  would  straight- 
way relax  its  claims  and  withdraw  into  the  back- 
ground, where  it  belongs.  If  a  great  general  is 
come  to  town,  if  a  famous  regiment  is  to  have  a 
reception,  if  a  long-looked-for  statue  has  safely 
crossed  the  sea  and  is  to  be  set  up,  if  a  foreign 
fleet  lies  in  the  harbor  and  is  to  send  its  officers 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  145 

on  diore,  if  a  young  Prince  is  to  pass  through  the 
city  on  his  way  home,  men  rush  together  in  masses 
so  dense  as  to  endanger  limb  and  life.  Business 
is  the  last  thing  that  interposes  any  obstacle  to 
seeing  and  hearing  that  which  a  man  determines 
to  see  and  hear. 

Business  ?  What  is  man's  business  ?  Is  it 
to  take  care  of  that  which  is  temporary  or  that 
which  is  permanent ;  that  which  belongs  to  mat- 
ter, or  that  which  belongs  to  mind  ;  that  which 
he  shares  in  common  with  the  beasts,  or  that  which 
allies  him  to  the  angels,  —  nay,  more,  which  con- 
stitutes in  him  the  image  and  likeness  of  God? 
A  man's  business  is  to  support  his  family.  Cer- 
tainly. He  that  pro  vide  th  not  for  his  own  house- 
hold hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an 
infidel.  I  agree  to  that  with  all  my  heart.  But 
what  is  he  to  provide  ?  Food,  raiment,  shelter  ? 
These  first,  for  without  these  is  nothing  ;  but  these 
not  last,  for  he  who  stops  here  and  turns  his  pow- 
ers into  another  channel  is  guilty  of  high  crime. 

O  «/  O 

If  his  children  were  calves,  lambs,  chickens,  he 
would  do  so  much  for  them  ;  because  they  are 
human  beings,  he  must  do  somewhat  more.  But 
how  many  of  the  fathers  who  make  business  their 
plea  for  not  watching  over  their  children,  who 
are  away  from  home  from  seven  in  the  morn- 
ing till  seven  at  night,  who  from  year's  end  to 
year's  end,  except  on  Sunday  and  perhaps  two 
or  three  festive  days,  see  their  children  only  at 


146  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

hurried  meals,  and  snatch  a  kiss,  perhaps,  after  they 
are  in  bed  and  asleep,  who  know  no  more  about 
the  inward  and  hourly  life  of  their  own  than  of 
their  neighbor's  children,  —  how  many  of  these 
fathers  are  spending  their  time  and  talents  in  the 
sole  business  of  getting  food,  clothes,  and  shelter,  or 
even  books  and  educational  opportunities  for  their 
families  ?  How  many  of  these  men  earn  just  that 
and  no  more  ?  It  is  not  the  support  of  families,  it 
is  not  business,  it  is  not  necessity  alone,  on  which 
they  lavish  themselves.  It  is  their  own  pride  or 
luxury  or  inclination.  They  wish  to  extend  their 
business,  to  acquire  wealth,  or  a  competence,  to  be 
known  as  enterprising,  public-spirited  men,  to  be 
chosen  on  committees  and  sent  to  the  legisla- 
ture, all  right,  if  rightly  come  by,  but  terribly 
wrong,  worthless,  perishable  with  the  using,  and 
of  no  important  use,  if  children  are  to  be  given  in 
barter  for  them. 

"  This  is  all  very  well  to  talk  about,"  you  say  ; 
"  but  a  man  cannot  do  anything  in  this  world  with- 
out money,  and  he  cannot  make  money  unless  he 
sticks  to  his  business."  Ah,  my  friend  !  so  far  as 
the  best  things  of  this  world  are  concerned,  you 
cannot  do  anything  with  money,  and  you  cannot 
make  good  men  and  women  unless  you  stick  to  your 
children.  Will  money  give  you  back  the  little 
baby-soul  whose  tender  unfolding  had  such  sweet- 
ness and  healing  for  you,  but  which  you  lost  be- 
cause you  would  not  stop  long  enough  to  look  at 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  147 

it  in  your  mad  world- ways  ?  Will  money  give  * 
you  the  saving  influence  over  your  boy  which  *> 
might  have  kept  him  from  vicious  companions  and 
vicious  habits,  —  an  influence  which  your  constant 
interest,  intercourse,  and  example  in  his  boyish 
days  might  have  established,  but  which  seemed  to 
you  too  trivial  a  thing  to  win  you  from  your  darling 
pursuit  of  gains  ?  Will  money  make  you  the  friend 
and  confidant  of  your  daughter,  the  joy  of  her 
heart,  and  the  standard  of  her  judgment,  so  that 
her  ripening  youth  shall  give  you  intimacy,  inter- 
change of  thought  and  sentiment,  and  you  shall 
give  to  her  a  measure  to  estimate  the  men  around 
her,  and  a  steady  light  that  shall  keep  her  from 
being  beguiled  by  the  lights  that  only  lead  astray  ? 
Will  it  give  you  back  the  children  who  have 
rushed  out  wildly  or  strayed  indifferently  from  the 
house  which  you  have  never  taken  pains  to  make 
a  home,  but  have  been  content  to  turn  into  a 
hotel,  with  only  less  of  liberty  ?  Will  money  make 
you  the  heart  as  well  as  the  head  of  your  family, 
—  honored,  revered,  beloved? 

If  your  firm  transacts  business  on  a  capital  of  a 
hundred  thousand  instead  of  half  a  million  dollars, 
what  is  it  but  a  little  less  paper,  fewer  clerks,  and 
narrower  rooms?  Though  your  farm  have  but 
fifty  instead  of  two  hundred  acres,  there  is  just 
as  much  land  on  the  earth.  Suppose  you  argue 
before  a  jury  only  two  cases  to-day  instead  of 
three,  there  are  a  dozen  young  advocates  who  will 


148  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

be  glad  of  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  your  table, 
and  Fate  will  mete  out  her  sure,  rough-handed 
justice.  With  half  the  business  you  are  doing 
now,  could  not  you  and  your  family  be  comforta- 
bly and  decently  fed,  clothed,  and  sheltered  ? 
House,  dress,  and  furniture  might  not  be  so  fine, 
but  something  of  more  worth  than  they  would 
be  finer.  A  family's  support  does  not  necessarily 
involve  sumptuous  fare,  purple  and  fine  linen, 
damask  and  rosewood.  If  the  choice  lies  between 
Turkey  carpets,  or  even  three-ply,  under  a  child's 
feet,  and  a  father's  hand  clasping  his  to  guide  his 
steps,  what  man  wrho  believes  —  I  will  not  say  in 
immortality,  but  in  virtue, — what  father  who  is 
not  utterly  unworthy  to  bear  the  sacred  name,  can 
for  one  moment  waver  ? 

Every  man,  and  especially  every  father,  should 
aim  to  have  a  character  that  shall  alone  have 
weight  both  with  his  fellow-citizens  and  his  chil- 
dren. His  integrity  should  be  so  unimpeachable 
that  his  motives  shall  be  unquestioned.  So  far 
as  his  reputation  is  truthful,  it  should  be  firmly 
grounded  on  moral  virtues  and  moral  graces,  so 
that  his  word  shall  have  a  force  quite  independent 
of  his  surroundings.  He  should  be  strong  enough 
to  be  able  to  live  in  a  plain  house,  and  wear  plain 
clothes,  and  deny  himself,  not  only  luxuries,  but 
comforts  and  beauties,  for  the  sake  of  his  children's 
society  and  improvement,  withont  forfeiting  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  his  neighbors  or  inflicting 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  149 

any  pain  of  mortification  upon  his  children.  You 
cannot  do  anything  in  this  world  without  money,  if 
money  is  your  sole  or  your  chief  claim  to  considera- 
tion ;  but,  in  the  face  of  ten  thousand  der^als,  I 
would  still  rr"iinta'  that  it  is  possible  to  attain  a 
character  and  a  standing  that  shall  set  money  at 
defiance.  He  who  refuses  to  believe  this,  and  acts 
apon  a  contrary  belief,  shows  not  only  a  want  of 
real  inward  dignity,  but  of  a  knowledge  of  Vistoiy 
and  of  life.  A  picture  of  Raphael,  fitly  iramed 
and  hung,  is  a  treasure  to  be  prized  beyond  words  ; 
but  with  no  frame  at  all,  and  hung  in  the  dreary 
parlor  of  a  village  inn,  it  is  worth  more,  and  would 
be  more  widely  sought  and  more  highly  prized 
than  a  palaceful  of  commonplace  paintings.  Let 
all  the  accessories  be  as  beautiful  as  you  can  com- 
mand ;  but  at  all  events  make  sure  of  the  picture. 
He  is  not  a  wise  man  who  expends  all  his  energies 
on  the  frame,  and  trusts  to  luck  for  the  painting. 

Nor  is  it  any  excuse  to  say  that  you  must  lay 
up  provision  against  the  future.  No  one  has  any 
right  to  sacrifice  the  present  to  the  future.  You 
do  not  know  that  you  will  have  any  future.  "  The 
present,  the  present,  is  all  thou  hast  for  thy  sure 
possessing."  You  may  forego  present  luxuries 
for  future  needs  or  for  future  luxuries,  but  you 
may  not  forego  present  needs  for  futur.e  possi- 
bilities. If  besides  performing  the  duty  of  t<W 
day  you  can  algo  lay  up  money  for  to-morrow, 
it  is  well;  but  to  slight  a  certain  to-day  for  an 


150  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

/uncertain  to-morrow,  is  all  ill.  Provide,  if  you 
can,  means  to  send  your  boy  to  college,  to  edu- 
cate your  daughter,  to  shelter  your  old  age  ;  yet, 
remember,  before  those  means  can  be  used,  the 
boy,  the  girl,  the  man,  may  lie  each  in  his  silent 
grave ;  but  though  there  may  never  be  a  college 

£  student,  a  ripening  maiden,  a  gray-haired  man, 
there  is  now  a  little  boy,  a  little  girl,  who  stand  in 
need  of  their  father ;  and  a  father  is  of  more  worth 
to  his  son  than  a  college,  of  more  worth  to  his 

S  daughter  than  many  tutors.  Train  them  in  the 
way  they  should  go,  going  yourself  before  them 
with  a  steady  step,  and  trust  God  for  that  future 
against  which  you  are  unable  to  provide. 

And  this  remember :   the  very  best  provision 

>  against  the  future  is  investments  in  heart  and  mus- 
cle and  brain.  Money  without  them  is  worth- 
less. They  without  money  are  still  inestimable 
riches.  If  your  son  at  twenty-one  is  alienated 
from  his  father,  dissipated,  headstrong,  weak,  a 
source  of  anxiety  and  trouble  to  his  family,  he 
will  pierce  your  heart  through  with  many  sorrows, 
though  you  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
laid  up  for  him  in  the  bank.  If  your  daughter 
is  a  frivolous,  woman,  the  silks  with  which  your 
wealth  enables  you  to  adorn  her,  the  society  with 
which  it  may  perhaps  enable  you  to  surround 
her,  will  only  set  her  folly  in  a  stronger  light. 
But  if  your  children  stand  on  the  threshold  of 
their  manhood  and  their  womanhood,  strong,  self 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  151 

poised,  mailed  for  defence  and  armed  for  warfare, 
glad  and  grateful  for  the  love  that  has  forged 
each  weapon  and  taught  its  skilful  handling,  no^ 
king  on  his  throne  is  so  blessed  as  you.  They 
have  all  that  they  need  to  conquer  the  world. 
Your  money  may  be  a  snare  to  your  child,  your 
wisdom  never.  If  you  lose  your  money,  it  is  gone 
forever.  The  child  whom  your  love  is  enriching 
with  youthful  health  and  promise  may  go  before 
you  suddenly  out  of  the  world,  but  your  labor 
and  your  love  are  not  lost.  Somewhere,  under  a 
warmer  sun  than  this,  his  earthly  promise  bursts 
into  the  full  blossom  and  the  mellow  fruit  of 
performance  more  beautiful  than  eye  can  see  or 
heart  conceive. 

The  adequate  care  and  guidance  of  the  family 
which  he  has  founded  is  a  man's  business  in  life. 
Farming,  preaching,  and  shopkeeping  are  second- 
ary matters,  to  be  regulated  according  to  the  needs 
of  the  family.  The  family  is  not  to  be  regulated 
by  their  requirements.  And  a  family's  needs  are 
not  gay  clothing  and  rich  food,  but  a  husband  and 
father.  It  is  the  great  duty  of  his  life  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  his  children,  to  know  their  charac- 
ter, their  tastes,  their  tendencies,  to  know  who  are 
their  associates,  and  what  are  their  associations, 
what  books  they  read,  and  what  books  they  like  to 
read,  to  gratify  their  innocent  desires,  to  lop  off 
their  excrescences  and  bring  out  their  excellences, 
to  know  them  as  a  good  farmer  knows  his  soil, 


152  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

draining  the  bogs  into  fertile  meadows  and  turning 
the  watercourses  into  channels  of  beauty  and  life. 
He  may  furnish  his  children  opportunities  without 
number,  but  the  one  thing  beyond  all  others  which 
he  owes  them  is  himself.  He  may  provide  tutors 
and  schools  ;  but  to  no  tutor  and  no  school  can  he 
pass  over  his  relationship  and  its  responsibilities. 
xlf  he  is  a  stranger  to  his  children,  if  they  are 
strangers  to  him,  he  shall  be  found  wanting  when 
lie  is  weighed  in  the  balance. 

Niebuhr,  we  are  told  by  his  biographer,  "  con- 
sidered the  training  of  his  children,  especially  of 
his  son,  as  the  most  imperative  duty  of  his  life,  to 
which  all  other  considerations,  except  that  of  very 
evident  and  important  service  to  his  country, 
ought  to  be  subordinated.  In  ordinary  times  he 
placed  private  duties  above  public  ones."  '  Before 
the  child  was  born  his  fatherly  fondness  was  plan- 
ning schemes  for  the  future.  "  In  case  it  should 
be  a  boy,  I  am  already  preparing  myself  to  edu- 
cate him.  I  should  try  to  familiarize  him  ver^ 
«arly  with  the  anoient  languages,  by  making  him 
repeat  sentences  after  me,  and  relating  stories  to 
him  in  them,  in  order  that  he  might  not  have  too 
m  i.ch  to  learn  afterwards,  nor  yet  read  too  much 
at  too  early  an  age ;  but  receive  his  education  after 
the  fashion  of  the  ancients.  I  think  I  should 
know  how  to  educate  a  boy,  but  not  a  girl ;  I 
should  be  in  danger  of  making  her  too  learned. 
....  I  would  relate  innumerable  stories  to  the 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  153 

boy,  as  my  father  did  to  me  ;  but  by  degrees  mix 
up  more  and  more  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  them, 
BO  that  he  would  be  forced  to  learn  those  lan- 
guages in  order  to  understand  the  stories."  By 
and  by,  when  the  child  is  eight  months  old,  we 
find  him  curtailing  his  literary  investigations  be- 
cause he  is  "  moreover,  just  now,  too  much  occu- 
pied with  Marcuccio."  When  "  Marcuccio  "  is 
five  years  old  his  father  writes  :  "  We  have  daily 
proofs  of  Marcus's  noble  nature ;  still  I  am  well 
aware  that  this  affords  us  no  guaranty,  unless  it 

be  guided  with  the  most  watchful  care I 

succeed  with   teaching  as  well-  as  I  could   have 

ventured  to  hope I  am  reading  with  him 

Hygin's  Mythologicum,  —  a  bo§k  which,  perhaps; 
it  is  not  easy  to  use  for  th^*purpose,  and  which, 
yet,' is  more  suited  to  it  than  any  other,,  from  the 
absence  of  formal  ]  riods,  arid  the  interest  of  the 
narrative.  For  German,  I  write  fragments  of 
the  Greek  mythology  for  him I  give  every- 
thing in  a  very  fret  and  picturesque  style,  so  that 
it  is  as  exciting  as  poetry  to  him  ;  and,  in  fact,  he 
reads  it  with  such  delight  that  we  are  often  inter- 

o 

rupted  by  his  cries  of  joy.  The  child  is  quite  de- 
voted to  me  ;  but  this  educating  costs  me  a  great 
deal  of  time.  However,  I  have  had  my  share  of 
life,  and  I  •  shall  consider  it  as  a  reward  for  my  la- 
bors if  this  young  life  be  as  fully  and  richly  de* 
veloped  as  lies  within  my  power." 
If  Niebuhr,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his 

7* 


154  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

time,  ambassador  of  Prussia  to  Rome,  with  all  tlio 
business  to  transact,  not  only  of  Prussia,  but  of  all 
the  petty  German  powers  that  had  no  minister  of 
their  own,  engaged  in  minute  and  abstruse  histori- 
cal investigation  bearing  upon  a  work  with  which 
he  was  occupied  and  which  may  be  said  to  have 
revolutionized  Roman  history, — if  his  time  was 
not  too  valuable  to  bestow  upon  the  amusement, 
the  affection,  and  the  education  of  a  baby,  where 
shall  we  find,  in  America,  a  man  whose  valuable 
time  shall  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  neglect  of 
his  children?  It  may  not  be  necessary  or  desirable 
to  copy  Niebuhr's  course  with  exactness.  His 
residence  in  Rome  devolved  upon  him  a  larger 
part  of  the  mental  education  of  the  boy  than  would 
have  been  necessary  at  home.  I  am  also  inclined 
to  think  that  he  was  too  careful  and  troubled,  and 
did  not  have  faith  enough  in  Nature  and  God. 
But  the  point  which  I  wish  to  show  is,  that,  in  the 
midst  of  his  numerous  and  important  duties,  he 
found  time  for  his  child  ;  and  if  he  could  do  so 
much,  surely  those  who  have  not  one  tenth  part 
of  his  duties  and  responsibilities,  either  in  num- 
ber or  weight,  can  find  time  to  do  the  far  less 
service  which  devolves  upon  them.  If  they  can- 
not, there  is  but  one  resource.  If  a  man  is  not 
able  to  be  both  statesman  and  father,  both  mer- 
chant and  father,  or  lawyer  and  father,  or  farmer 
and  father,  he  ought  to  elect  which  he  will  be,  and 
confine  himself  to  his  choice.  If  he  is  too  much 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  155 

absorbed  in  scientific  pursuits,  or  if  he  is  not  a 
sufficiently  dextrous  workman  to  be  able  to  se- 
cure from  his  bench  tune  enough  to  attend  to  other 
interests,  he  ought  not  to  create  other  interests. 
No  man  has  any  right  to  assume  the  charge  of 
two  positions  when  he  has  the  ability  to  perform 
the  duties  of  but  one.  If  he  alone  bore  the  evil 
consequences  of  his  shortcomings,  he  would  be 
less  blameworthy,  but  the  chief  burden  falls  upon 
his  children  and  upon  the  state.  Reckless  of 
moral  obligation,  mindful  only  of  his  own  self- 
ish impulses,  the  fruits  of  his  recklessness  and 
selfishness  are,  —  not  houses  that  tumble  down 
upon  their  builders,  machinery  that  cannot  bear  its 
own  strain,  garments  that  perish  with  the  first 
using,  —  these  are  bad  enough,  but  these  are 
harmlessness  itself  compared  with  the  evils  which 
he  causes.  The  harvest  of  his  headlong  wicked- 

o 

ness  is  living  beings  who  must  bear  their  life  for- 
ever. He  bids  into  the  world,  tender  little  inno- 
cent souls,  knowing  that  he  cannot  or  will  not 
stand  guard  over  them  to  ward  off  the  fierce, 
wild  devils  that  lie  in  wait  to  rend  them.  Plastic 
to  his  touch,  they  may  be  moulded  to  vessels  of 
honor  or  vessels  of  dishonor,  for  the  promise  of 
God  is  absolute,  yea,  and  amen.  Yet  he  turns 
aside  to  fritter  away  his  time  over  newspapers,  to 
talk  politics,  to  buy  and  sell  and  get  unnecessary 
gain,  and  leaves  them  to  other  hands,  to  chance 
corners,  to  all  manner  of  warping  and  hardening 


156  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

influences,  so  that  their  after-lives  must  be  one 
long  and  bitter  struggle  against  early  acquired 
deformity,  or  a  fatal  yielding  and  a  fatal  torpor 
whose  end  is  deadly  dismay. 

But  in  popular  opinion  and  by  common  usage 
all  is  thrown  upon  the  mother.  By  all  tradition 
she  is  the  centre,  the  heart,  the  mainspring,  of 
the  household.  From  what  newspaper,  what  book, 
what  lecture,  would  you  learn  that  fathers  have 
anything  to  do  at  home  but  to  go  into  their  slip- 
pers and  dressing-gowns,  and  be  luxuriously  fed 
and  softly  soothed  into  repose  ?  The  care  and 
management  of  the  children  fall  upon  the  mother. 
Who  does  all  the  fine  things  in  the  pretty  nurs- 
ery rhymes?  "My  mother."  It  is  her  sphere, 
divinely  circled.  All  the  fitnesses  of  her  life  point 
in  that  one  direction.  All  men's  hands  are  so 
many  finger-posts  saying,  "  This  is  the  way,  walk 
ye  in  it." 

It  is  the  mother's  sphere  to  take  motherly  care 
of  her  children.  It  is  the  father's  sphere  to  take 
fatherly  care.  Neither  can  leave  his  duties  to  the 
other  without  danger.  The  family  system  is  2 
combination  of  the  solar  and  the  binary  systems. 
All  the  little  bodies  whirl  around  a  common  cen- 
tre, but  that  centre  is  no  solitary  orb.  It  is  two 
suns,  self-luminous,  revolving  around  each  other, 
and  neither  able  to  throw  upon  its  mate  the  bur- 
den of  its  shining. 

Many  fathers    seem   to   think    that  they  have 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  157 

nothing  to  do  with  their  children  except  to  caress 
them  and  frolic  with  them  an  hour  or  two  in  the 
evening,  until  they  are  old  enough  to  be  assistants 
in  work.  But  just  as  soon  as  there  is  the  fatherly 
relation,  there  is  the  fatherly  duty.  A  baby  in  a 
house  is  a  well-spring  of  pleasure ;  but  it  is  also 
a  well-spring  of  care  and  anxiety  immeasurable,  of 
whose  waters  there  is  no  reason  why  the  father 
should  not  drink  as  deeply  as  the  mother.  The 
glory,  the  honor,  the  immortality,  will  shed  a  full 
light  upon  him,  and  he  also 

"  With  heart  of  thankfulness  should  bear 
Of  the  great  common  burden  his  full  share." 

I  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  pleasantry  played  off 
against  the  doctrines  of  woman's  .rights  in  news- 
papers, pictorial  and  otherwise ;  the  wife  is  repre- 
sented as  being  immersed  in  public  employments, 
while  the  meek,  sad  husband  stays  at  home  and 
minds  the  baby.  I  do  not  know  that  any  impor- 
tant ends  would  be  answered  by  an  indiscriminate 
female-haranguing  in  the  market-place ;  but  I  do 
know  that  it  would  be  a  great  deal  better  for  all 
concerned  if  fathers  would  pay  more  attention  to 
the  little  ones.  Womanly  gentleness  and  tender- 
ness, and  long-suffering  to-baby-ward  reads  sweetly 
in  books,  rounds  graceful  periods  from  melodious 
lips,  and  is  the  loveliest  of  all  modes  of  levying 
black  mail.  But  when  you  come  down  to  matters 
of  fact,  a  fractious  child  is  just  as  likely  to  bo 
quieted  by  its  father's  lullaby  as  by  its  mother's, 


158  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

if  you  pm  the  father  down  to  lullabies.  Men  who 
are  inclined  to  take  care  of  their  children  never 
find  any  hinderance  in  their  manhood.  Male 
nurses  for  children  are  no  less  efficient  than  female 
nurses.  It  is  not  his  sex,  but  his  selfishness,  that 
makes  man's  unfitness.  He  will  not  endure  the 
tedium  of  soothing  and  tending  his  child.  He 
knows  the  mother  will,  and  he  lets  her  do  it. 
Her  fitness  is  a  good  excuse  for  his  self-indulgence. 
But  if  he  is  disposed  to  take  the  trouble,  he  can 
do  it  often  as  well  as  she ;  often  better,  for  the 
mother's  weaker  and  wearier  nerves  and  greater 
sensitiveness  act  on  the  little  one  and  increase  its 
irritability,  while  the  father's  strength  and  calm- 
ness are  a  sort  of  soporific.  Somebody  says  that  a 
mother's  arm  is  the  strongest  thing  in  the  world. 
It  upbears  the  child  as  she  walks  back  and  forth 
through  the  long  night-hours  soothing  its  restless- 
ness and  pain,  and  never  tires.  Vastly  well 
spoken.  Suppose,  O  smooth-tongued  Seignior, 
you  take  a  turn  with  the  baby  yourself,  and  see 
whether  your  arm  tires.  If  it  does,  do  not  for  one 
moment  indulge  in  the  pleasing  illusion  that  hers 
does  not.  It  is  made  of  flesh  and  blood  and  bones 
just  like  yoursr  and  like  causes  produce  like  ef- 
fects. But  what  is  true  is,  that  her  unselfish 
mother-love  is  so  strong  that  she  keeps  on,  not- 
withstanding the  ache.  Go  and  do  thou  likewise. 
I  do  not  say  that  fathers  will  not.  Many  do,  ana 
what  man  has  done  man  may  do.  Lea^  e  female 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  159 

endurance  to  poetry,  and  remember  that  in  actual 
life  the  laws  of  bone  and  muscle  are  as  fixed  as 
any  other  laws  of  natural  philosophy,  and  that 
action  is  surely  followed  by  fatigue.  Walk  you 
the  floor  with  the  baby  in  your  arms,  if  he  must 
be  carried,  at  least  two  hours  to  her  one,  because 
your  arms  were  stronger  to  begin  with,  and  be- 
cause hers  have  an  added  weakness  from  the  ad- 
vent of  this  little  round-limbed  Prince.  Do  not, 
above  all  things,  betake  yourself  to  a  remote  and 
silent  part  of  the  house  and  dream  your  pleasant 
dreams,  while  the  mother  loses  her  sleep  and  her 
rest  by  the  ailing  and  fretful  baby.  But  a  man's 
rest  must  not  be  broken.  Why  not  as  well  as  a 
woman's  ?  He  must  have  a  clear  head  and  a  firm 
hand  to  transact  the  next  day's  business.  But 
what  is  she  going  to  do?  The  cases  are  so  in- 
numerous  as  to  form  a  very  insignificant  propor- 
tion wherein  the  American  mother  is  not  also  cook, 
laundress,  seamstress,  housekeeper,  and  chamber- 
maid, with  sometimes  one  awkward,  ignorant, 
inefficient  Irish  servant,  rarely  two,  and  not  rarely 
none  at  all.  As  a  matter  of  moral  economy  the 
care  of  a  baby  is  enough  to  occupy  any  woman's 
time,  and  is  all  the  care  she  ought  to  have.  As  I 
have  before  said,  even  under  the  curse,  this  is  the 
arrangement  that  was  made  for  her.  Her  mother- 
hood frees  her  from  toil ;  but  man's  care  is  heavier 
than  God's  curse,  and  she  too  often  bears  on  her  own 
head  both  her  punishment  and  his.  If  he  makes 


1GO  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

such  provision  for  her  that  she  has  absolutely  no 
other  than  her  maternal  duties,  she  can  afford, 
perhaps,  to  lose  her  rest  at  night,  since  she  can 
make  it  up  in  the  daytime ;  and  ui:  questionably 
nature  has  fitted  babies  to  mothers  more  closely 
than  to  fathers;  but  to  lay  upon  her,  besides  the 
care  of  her  children,  all  manner  of  other  cares, 
and  then  leave  her  with  aching  nerves  and  weak- 
ened frame  and  failing  heart  to  worry  it  out  as  she 
may,  is  a  culpable  cruelty  for  which  no  amount 
of  pretty  sentiment  is  the  smallest  atonement.* 

There  are  so  -many  ways  where  there  is  a  will ! 
There  are  so  many  opportunities  for  usefulness,  if 
a  man  would  only  improve  them.  How  many 
times  does  the  merchant,  the  lawyer,  the  busy 
business  man,  stop  at  the  street-corners,  or  in  his 
own  haunts,  to  chat  with  friends?  How  many 
hours  there  are  in  the  twenty-four  when  a  man 
might  run  down  from  his  study,  come  in  earlier 
from  his  shop,  take  a  recess  from  his  fields,  and 
rest  himself  and  his  wife  by  giving  the  little  one  a 

*  I  like  sometimes  to  take  my  views  out  on  an  airing,  before 
making  a  final  disposition  of  them,  just  to  see  how  they  are 
received.  On  one  such  occasion,  an  excellent  man,  in  comfort- 
able circumstances,  expressed  his  very  hearty  dissent  from  my 
opinions  about  woman's  work.  He  thought  women  had  a 
pretty  easy  time  of  it,  and  appealed  to  his  wife,  just  then  enter- 
ing the  room,  to  say  what  had  been  her  own  experience.  I 
wish  type  could  convey  the  clear,  ringing  decisiveness  and  in- 
<*,isiveness  of  the  tone  with  which  she  instantaneously  responded 
M  HARASSED  TO  DEATH  !  " 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  1G1 

rid  /  in  the  basket-wagon,  or  the  elegant  carriage, 
or  amusing  it  on  the  carpet,  while  tired  mamma 
lies  down  for  a  much-needed  nap,  or  turns  off  a 
greater  amount  of  belated  mending  or  cooking 
than  she  could  do  in  four  hours  with  baby. 
And  what  benefit  would  not  the  man  himself  re- 
ceive, what  gradual  diminution  of  his  selfishness  in 
thus  waiting  upon  the  helplessness  of  this  little 
creature.  Under  what  bonds  for  the  future  and 
for  virtue  does  it  not  lay  him  ?  Let  him  look  down 
upon  his  baby  with  earnest  eyes,  and  inwardly 
resolve  to  be  himself  a  man  pure  and  honorable  as 
he  wishes  this  boy  to  be ;  let  him  remember  to  bear 
himself  toward  all  women  as  he  would  have  all  men 
bear  themselves  to  the  tiny  woman  in  his  arms. 

There 'are  men  who  assume  and  act  on  the  as- 
sumption that  their  days  must  be  kept  free  from 
childish  interlopers.  They  are  aggrieved,  their 
personal  rights  are  infringed  upon,  they  have  a 
most  heavy  and  undeserved  yoke  to  bear  if  the 
children  are  not  hustled  out  of  their  way,  —  as  if 
children  were  a  kind  of  luxury  and  plaything  of 
women  in  which  they  may  be  indulged,  if  they 
will  be  careful  to  confine  them  to  their  own 
department,  nor  ever  let  them  encroach  on  the 
peculiar  domains  of  the  lord  of  the  manor.  There 
are  women  weak  enough  to  give  in  to  this  assump- 
tion, and  make  it  a  rule  that  the  children  are 
not  to  disturb  their  father.  Before  he  comes 
into  the  house  the  crying  baby  must  be  hushed  at 


162  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

' 

any  cost,  or  removed  beyond  his  hearing.  The 
little  ones  are  not  allowed  to  enter  his  study, 
they  must  not  play  in  the  hall  near  it,  nor  in  the 
garden  under  his  window,  because  the  noise  dis- 
turbs him.  When  the  mood  takes  him,  he  takes 
them.  He  goes  into  the  nursery  and  has  a  merry 
romp  with  them,  and  when  he  is  tired  of  it  or  they 
begin  to  take  too  many  liberties,  he  goes  out  again 
and  thinks  his  children  are  very  charming.  Or 
possibly  he  n&ver  goes  into  the  nursery  at  all,  — 
a  lack  of  interest  which  would  be  very  unwom- 
anly in  a  woman,  but  is  not  the  the  least  unmanly 
nor  absolutely  unknown  in  a  man.  It  is  a  great 
affliction  to  the  mother,  if,  in  consequence  of  a 
temporary  neglect  of  picket-duty,  he  puts  his  head 
into  the  kitchen  or  sewing-room,  to  say  with  heroic 
self-control,  "Carrie,  the  children  are  so  in  and 
out  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  do  anything." 
An  impatient  upward  look  from  his  newspaper 
causes  her  a  shiver  of  dread.  Small  table-skir- 
mishes are  put  to  an  untimely  end  by  mamma's 
hurrying  the  unlucky  belligerents  out  of  sight  and 
sound  of  their  outraged  sire,  and  the  one  Medo- 
Persic  law  of  the  family  is  at  all  risks  to  rescue 
the  father  from  every  inconvenience  and  annoy- 
ance from  the  children.  The  kind,  devoted  woman 
shuts  them  carefully  up  within  her  own  precincts. 
They  may  overrun  her  without  stint.  They  may 
climb  her  chair,  pull  her  work  about,  upset  her 
basket,  scratch  the  bureau,  cut  the  sofa,  run  to  her 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  163 

for  healing  in  every  little  heart-ache  ;  but  no  mat- 
ter. They  are  kept  from  disturbing  papa.  I  am 
amazed  at  the  folly  of  women !  Kept  from  dis- 
turbing papa  ?  Rather  hound  them  on,  if  there 
must  be  any  intervention  !  Put  the  crying  baby 
in  his  arms  the  moment  he  enters  the  house,  and 
be  sure  to  run  away  at  once  beyond  his  reach,  or 
with  true  masculine  ingenuity  he  will  be  sure  at 
the  end  of  five  minutes  to  find  some  pretext  for 
delivering  the  young  orator  back  into  your  care. 
So  far  from  carefully  withholding  the  children  from 
the  paternal  vicinage,  at  the  first  symptoms  of  ex- 
clusiveness,  put  a  paper  of  candy  and  a  set  of  drums 
at  his  door  to  toll  the  children  thither.  But  this 
only  in  extreme  cases.  If  he  is  ordinarily  reason- 
able, the  right  course  is  to  do  neither,  but  let 
things  take  their  own  way.  Except  in  case  of  ill- 
ness or  some  unusual  and  pressing  emergency,  the 
little  ones  ought  not  to  be  kept  from  either  of  their 
lawful  owners.  The  serenity  of  one  is  no  more 
sacred  than  the  serenity  of  the  other.  The  father 
must  simply  take  the  natural  consequences  of  his 
children.  If  they  drift  into  his  current,  he  must 
bear  them  on.  He  ought  to  experience  their  ob- 
viousness, their  inconvenience,  their  distraction. 
It  is  no  worse  for  a  chubby  hand  to  upset  the  ink- 
stand on  his  papers,  than  for  it  to  upset  the  molas 
ses-pitcher  upon  the  table-cloth.  It  is  no  worse 
for  his  experiments,  his  study,  his  reading,  to  be 
interrupted,  than  it  is  for  his  wife's  sewing.  He 


1G4  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

can  write  his  letters,  or  stand  behind  the  counter, 
or  make  shoes,  with  a  baby  in  his  arms,  just  as 
well  as  she  can  make  bread  and  set  the  table  with 
a  baby  in  her  arms.  Let  him  come  into  actual 
close  contact  with  his  children  and  see  what  they 
are  and  what  they  do,  and  he  will  have  far  more 
just  ideas  of  the  whole  subject  than  if  he  stands 
far  off  and,  from  old  theories  on  the  one  side  and 
ten  minutes  of  clean  apron  and  bright  faces  on 
the  other,  pronounces  his  euphonious  generaliza- 
tions. His  children  will  elicit  as  much  love  and 
admiration  and  interest  as  now,  together  with  a 
great  deal  more  ^knowledge  and  a  great  deal  less 
silly,  mannish  sentimentalism. 


IX. 


UT  whatever  may  be  the  opportunities 
and  capabilities  of  infantine  gymnastics, 
there  is  always  one  way  in  which  fathers 
may  indirectly,  but  very  powerfully, 
influence  their  children,  and  that  is  through  the 
mother.  When  her  little  children  are  around  her, 
she  needs  above  all  earthly  things  the  strength, 
support,  society,  and  sympathy  of  her  husband. 
It  is  wellnigh  impossible  to  conceive  the  demand 
which  a  little  child  makes  upon  its  mother's  vital- 
ity. In  Nature's  plan,  I  believe,  the  supply  is  al- 
ways equal  to  the  demand.  The  new,  fresh  life 
gives  back  through  a  thousand  channels  all  the  life 
it  draws.  But  if  the  mother  is  left  alone,  in  such 
a  solitude  as  is  never  found  outside  of  marriage, 
but  often  and  often  within  it ;  if  she  is  left  to  seek 
in  her  baby  her  chief  solace,  unhappy  is  her  fate. 
The  little  one  exhausts  her  physical  strength,  and 
the  inattentive  and  abstracted  —  alas  !  that  one 
may  not  seldom  say,  the  unkind  and  overbearing 
husband  fails  to  supply  her  with  moral  strength, 


166  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

and  her  weary  feet  go  on  with  ever-diminishing 
joy.  All  this  is  unnecessary.  All  this  is  contrary 
to  the  Divine  economy.  Every  child  ought  to  be 
a  new  spring  of  life,  an  El  Dorado,  fountain  of 
immortal  youth.  Whether  it  shall  be  or  not  lies, 
if  you  look  at  it  from  one  point,  wholly  with  the 
husband,  or  if  you  look  at  it  from  another,  wholly 
with  the  wife.  On  the  one  hand,  each  is  all- 
powerful.  On  the  other,  each  is  powerless.  But 
the  husband  has  always  the  advantage  of  strength, 
out-door  activities,  and  continual  commerce  with 
the  world,  and  consequent  variety.  The  wife, 
surrounded  by  her  children,  is  in  danger  of  giv- 
ing herself  up  to  them  entirely.  She  will  inces- 
santly dispense  her  life  without  being  careful  to 
furnish  herself  for  such  demands  by  opening  her 
soul  to  new  accessions.  Here  is  where  her  hus- 
band should  stand  by  her  continually  to  encourage 
and  stimulate.  If  she  is  not  strong  enough  to  go 
out  into  the  world,  let  him  bring  the  world  home 
to  her.  He  should  by  all  means  see  to  it  that  her 
heart  and  soul  do  not  contract.  Every  child,  every 
added  experience,  should  have  the  effect  of  ex- 
panding her  horizon,  deepening  and  enlarging  her 
sympathies,  and  enabling  her  to  gather  the  whole 
earth  into  her  motherly  love.  Her  little  world 
ought  to  be  a  type  of  the  great  world.  The  wis- 
dom which  she  gathers  in  the  one,  she  ought  to 
turn  to  the  good  of  the  other,  —  a  good  that  will 
surely  come  back  again  in  other  shapes  to  her  fam 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  167 

ily  world.  So,  every  family  should  be  both  a  mis- 
sionary centre  and  the  medium  through  which,  in 
never-ending  flow,  all  good  and  gracious  influ- 
ences shall  pour.  Every  family  should  rise  and 
fall  with  the  pulse  of  humanity,  and  not  be  a  mere 
knob  of  organic  matter,  without  dependencies  or 
connections.  But  the  father  should  see  to  this. 
He  should  gently  lure  the  mother  out  of  her 
nursery  into  such  broad  fresh  air  as  she  needs  for 
healthy  growth.  What  that  shall  be  is  a  ques- 
tion of  character  and  culture.  A  lyceum  lec- 
ture, a  sewing-society,  an  evening  party,  a  con- 
cert, a  county  fair,  may  be  elevation,  amusement, 
improvement  to  her.  Or  he  may  do  he?  most 
good  by  helping  her  to  "be  interested  in  read- 
ing, either  in  the  current  or  in  classic  literature. 
Or,  best  of  all,  he  may  charm  her  with  his  own 
companionship,  beguile  her  with  pleasant  drives, 
or  walks  and  talks,  keeping  her  heart  open  on  the 
husband  sid^,  and  so  continually  alive,  while  main- 
taining also  the  oneness  which  marriage  in  theory 
creates.  It  is  this  respect  in  which  husbands  are 
perhaps  most  generally  deficient.  They  do  not 
talk  with  their  wives,  If  a  neighbor  is  married, 
they  tell  of  it.  If  a  battle  is  fought,  or  a  village 
burnt  down,  they  communicate  the  fact ;  but  for 
any  interchange  of  thought  or  sentiment  or  emo- 
tion, for  any  conversation  that  is  invigorating,  in- 
spiring, that  causes  a  thrill  or  leaves  a  glow,  how 
often  does  "such  a  thing  occur  between  husband  and 


168  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

wife  ?  What  intellectual  meeting  is  there,  — 
what  shock  of  electricities  ?  When  a  definite  do- 
mestic question  is  to  be  decided,  the  wife's  judg- 
ment may  be  sought,  and  that  is  better  than  a  soli- 
tary stumbling  on,  regardless  of  her  views  or  feel- 
ings ;  but  this  sort  of  bread-and-butter  discussion 
of  ways  and  means  is  not  the  gentle,  animated  play 
of  conversation,  not  that  pleasant  sparkle  which 
enlivens  the  hours,  that  trustful  confidence  which 
lightens  the  heart,  that  wielding  of  weapons 
which  strengthens  the  arm,  that  sweet,  instinctive 
half  unveiling  which  increases  respect  and  deepens 
love  and  fills  the  heart  with  inexpressible  tender- 
ness. Yet  there  is  nobody  in  the  world  with  whom 
it  is  so  important  for  a  man  to  be  intimately  ac- 
quainted as  his  own  wife,  while  such  intimate  ac- 
quaintance is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 
Ever  one  sees  them  going  on  each  in  his  own 
path,  each  with  his  own  inner  world  of  opinions 
and  hopes  and  memories,  one  in  name,  miserably 
two  in  all  else. 

Men  often  have  too  much  confidence  in  their 
measuring-lines.  They  fancy  they  have  fathomed 
a  soul's  depths  when  they  have  but  sounded  its 
shallows.  They  think  they  have  circumnavigated 
the  globe  when  they  have  only  paddled  in  a  cove. 
They  trim  their  sails  for  other  seas,  leaving  the 
priceless  gems  of  their  own  undiscovered.  To 
many  a  man  no  voyage  of  exploration  would  bring 
such  rich  returns  as  a  persevering  and  affectionate 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  169 

search  into  the  resources  of  the  heart  which  he 
calls  his  own.  Many  and  many  a  man  would  be 
amazed  at  learning  that  in  the  tame  household 
drudge,  in  the  meek,  timid,  apologetic  recipient 
of  his  caprices,  in  the  worn  ai  d  fretful  invalid,  in 
the  commonplace,  insipid  domestic  weakling  he 
scorns  an  angel  unawares.  Many  a  wife  is  wearied 
and  neglected  into  moral  shabbiness,  who,  rightly 
entreated,  would  have  walked  sister  and  wife  of 
the  gods.  Human  nature  in  certain  directions  is 
as  infinite  as  the  Divine  nature,  and  when  a  man 
turns  away  from  his  wife,  under  the  impression 
that  he  has  exhausted  her  capabilities,  and  must 
seek  elsewhere  the  sympathy  and  companionship 
he  craves  or  go  without  it  altogether,  let  him  re- 
flect that  the  chances  are  at  least  even  that  he 
has  but  exhausted  himself,  and  that  the  soil  which 
seems  to  him  fallow  might  in  other  hands  or  with 
a  wiser  culture  yield  most  plenteous  harvests. 

There  is  another  point  which  should  be  kept 
an  solemn  consideration.  The  deportment  of  chil- 
dren to  their  parents  is  very  largely  influenced 
by  the  deportment  of  parents  to  each  other.  It 
is  of  small  service  that  a  child  be  taught  to 
repeat  the  formula,  "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother,"  if,  by  his  bearing,  the  father  continually 
dishonors  the  mother.  The  Monday  courtesy 
has  more  effect  than  the  Sunday  commandment. 
Every  conjugal  impoliteness  is  a  lesson  in  filial 
disrespect.  If  a  son  sees  that  his  father  is  regard- 


170  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

less  of  his  mother's  taste,  does  not  respect  her 
opinions,  or  heed  her  sensitiveness  or  care  for  her 
happiness ;  or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  sees  that 
she  is  held  in  ever- watchful  love,  he  will  be  very 
likely  to  follow  in  the  same  path.  There  are  of 
course  exceptions.  A  gross  and  brutal  abuse  may 
work  an  opposite  effect  by  the  law  of  contrarieties, 
but  in  ordinary  cases  this  is  the  ordinary  course 
of  events.  In  common  Christian  families  a  boy 
will  appraise  his  mother  at  his  father's  valuation. 
If  the  husband  takes  the  liberty  of  speaking  to 
her  sharply,  the  son  when  irritated  will  not  think 
it  worth  while  to  repress  his  inclination  to .  do  the 
same.  If  the  husband  is  not  careful  to  pay  her 
outward  respect,  let  it  not"  be  supposed  that  his 
son  will  set  him  the  example.  But  if  the  hus- 
band cherishes  her  with  delight,  if  his  behavior 
always  assumes  that  the  best  is  to  be  reserved 
for  her,  the  best  will  be  her  incense  from  the 
whole  family,  and  no  son  will  any  more  allow 
himself  to  indulge  any  evil  propensity  in  her  pres- 
ence than  he  would  pluck  out  his  right  eye.  And 
in  the  delicacy,  the  refinement,  the  gentleness  and 
warmth  and  consecration  of  her  presence  all  this 
courtesy  and  consideration  will  come  back  to  them 
a  hundred-fold  in  constant  dews  of  blessing. 

As  with  habits  so  with  principles.  The  moth- 
er's influence  is  strong,  but  the  stories  told  of  its 
strength  are  often  hurtful  in  their  tendency.  It  is 
not  the  strength  of  the  mother's,  but  of  the  father's 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  171 

influence,  that  needs  to  be  held  up  to  prominence. 
By  Divine  sufferance,  mothers  can  do  much  to 
abrogate  the  evil  consequences  of  paternal  mis- 
doing, —  but  paternal  misdoing  is  not  for  that  any 
the  less  evil.  If  the  husband  laughs  at  his  wife?s 
temperance  notions,  and  thinks  wine-sipping  to  be 
elegant  and  harmless,  his  boy  will  sip  wine  ele- 
gantly and  fancy  his  mother  old-fashioned  ;  and 
with  his  father's  appetite,  but  without  his  fathers 
strength,  and  with  more  than  his  father's  tempta- 
tions, —  in  the  great  city,  homeless,  bewildered,  and 
dazzled,  —  he  will  rush  on  to  a  bitter  end.  If  the 
husband  thinks  religion  a  thing  beautiful  and  be- 
coming to  woman,  but  unnecessary  to  manly  char- 
acter, his  son  will  not  long  go  to  church  and  to 
Sunday  school  when  he  feels  in  his  veins  the  thrill 
of  approaching  manhood.  I  know  a  community 
where  not  a  man  can  be  found  to  superintend  the 
Sabbath  school,  and  a  woman,  noble  and  whole- 
souled,  takes  its  charge  upon  herself.  The  fa- 
thers do  not  disbelieve  in  Sunday  schools,  or  they 
would  not  suffer  their  wives  and  children  to  go. 
They  do  not  believe  in  them,  or  they  would  go 
themselves.  They  are  simply  indifferent,  —  and 
indifferent  in  a  matter  so  important,  that  indif- 
ference is  guilt.  Will  the  young  men  of  that 
community  be  likely  to  fear  God  and  keep  his 
commandments  ?  Will  they  be  likely  to  acknowl- 
edge the  claims  of  a  religion  which  their  fathers 
despise  ?  If  they  grow  up  hardened,  selfish,  head- 


172  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE 

strong,  unfortified  against  assault,  will  it  be  the 
fault  of  the  mothers  who  are  struggling  against 
wind  and  tide,  or  of  the  fathers  who  are  lazily 
lounging  at  oar  and  rudder  ? 

People  in  general  are  not  half  married.  Half? 
If  one  would  mathematically  approximate  the 
truth,  he  musfc  multiply  his  denominator  far  be- 
yond reach  of  the  digits  ;  and,  what  is  still  worse 
the  fraction  that  is  married  is,  in  a  vast  majority 
of  cases,  not  only  the  least,  but  the  lowest.  It  is 
not  the  intellect,  the  spirit,  the  immortality,  that 
is  married,  but  that  alone  which  is  of  the  earth, 
earthy. 

Xenophon,  in  his  Memorabilia  Socratis,  presents 
to  us  Ischomacus,  an  Athenian  of  great  riches  and 
reputation,  repairing  to  Socrates  for  help  in  ex- 
tricating him  from  domestic  entanglements.  In 
laying  the  case  before  the  philosopher,  Ischomacus 
informs  him  that  he  told  his  wife  that  his  main 
object  in  marrying  her  was  to  have  a  person  in 
whose  discretion  he  could  confide,  who  would  take 
proper  care  of  his  servants,  and  expend  his  money 
with  economy,  —  which  was  certainly  very  frank. 

But  that  was  twenty-three  hundred  years  ago, 
and  people  have  grown  less  material  and  more 
spiritual  since  then.  No  man  now  would  hold  out 
to  a  woman  such  inducement  to  marriage.  Cer- 
tainly not.  Men  now  wait  till  the  Rubicon  is 
passed,  and  then  lay  down  their  pleasant  little 
programmes  in  the  newspapers,  —  general  prin- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  173 

dples  for  private  consumption.  The  popular  voice, 
speaking  in  your  everywhere  circulating  newspa- 
per, says:  UA  man  gets  a  wife  to  look  after  his 
affairs,  and  to  assist  him  in  his  journey  through 
life ;  to  educate  and  prepare  their  children  for  a 
proper  station  in  life,  and  'not  to  dissipate  his  prop- 
erty. The  husband's  interest  should  be  the  wife's 
care,  and  her  greatest  ambition  to  carry  her  no 
farther  than  his  welfare  or  happiness,  together  with 
that  of  her  children.  This  should  be  her  sole  aim, 
and  the  theatre  of  her  exploits  in  the  bosom  of  her 
family,  where  she  may  do  as  much  toward  making 
a  fortune  as  he  can  in  the  counting-room  or  the 
workshop." 

Is  this  very  much  more  commanding  than  the 
attitude  of  Ischomacus  ?  Does  Anno  Domini  loom 
with  immeasurable  grandeur  above  Anno  Mundi  ? 
Ischomacus  wanted  his  wife  to  manage  his  fortune. 
Young  America  wants  his  to  help  make  one.  Is 
it  a  very  great  stride  in  advance,  considering  we 
have  been  twenty-three  centuries  about  it  ?  This 
extract  I  take  from  a  religious  newspaper,  and  it  is 
pagan  to  the  heart's  core ;  yes,  and  in  these  mat- 
ters the  Church  is  as  pagan  as  the  World.  Be- 
cause a  man  is  folded  in  the  Church,  one  has  no 
more  expectation  of  finding  in  him  spiritual  views 
concerning  marriage  than  if  he  belonged  to  the 
World.  Unmitigated  selfishness,  worldliness,  greed, 
and  evil-seeking  are  the  roots  and  fruits  of  such  a 
*c religious"  paragraph.  Church  and  World  are 


174  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

both  gone  aside ;  and  altogether  become  filthy. 
The  holy  sacrament  is  profaned  alike  by  church- 
man and  worldling.  It  is  tossed  on  the  spear-point 
of  levity,  it  is  clutched  under  the  muck-rake  of 
materialism,  it  is  degraded  and  defiled  till  its  pris- 
tine purity  is  wellnigh  lost,  and  only  a  marred  and 
defaced  image  rears  its  foul  features  from  the  mire. 
That  it  does  not  always  cause  disgust,  is  because 
the  goddess  is  so  chiefly  hidden  that  women  do 
not  recognize  the  lineaments  of  the  demon  which 
lias  usurped  her  place.  Miasma  has  polluted  the 
atmosphere  so  long  that  people  do  not  know  the 
feeling  of  untainted  air.  O,  it  is  good  to  speak  your 
mind,  be  it  only  once  in  a  lifetime !  Now  I  wish 
I  had  walked  softly  all  my  days,  that,  with  all  the 
force  of  a  rare  indignation,  I  might  just  this  once 
crush  down  that  hateful,  that  debasing,  that  vile 
and  leprous  thing  which  flaunts  the  name  of  mar- 
riage, but  does  not  even  put  on  the  white  garments 
of  its  sanctity  to  hide  its  own  shame.  Leer  and 
laugh,  coarse  jest,  advice,  insinuation,  interpreta- 
tion, and  conjecture  beslime  the  surface  of  our 
social  life  and  work  abomination.  Nature  and  un- 
consciousness become  impossible,  and  one  is  swal- 
lowed up  in  stagnant  depths,  or  borne  above  them 
only  with  an  inward,  raging  tempest  of  irrepressi- 
ble loathing.  A  blessing  rest  upon  this  pen-point 
that  stamps  black  and  heavy  into  receptive  paper 
the  wrath  which  it  is  not  lawful  otherwise  to  ex- 
press. Sentiments  the  most  repulsive,  the  most 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  175 

insulting  to  womanhood  and  to  a  woman,  may  be 
coolly,  carelessly,  unconsciously  tossed  at  you  by 
and  in  society,  and  you  must  smile  and  parry  with 
equal  nonchalance.  Thank  Heaven  for  Guten- 
berg and  Dr.  Faustus,  that  whatsoever  has  been 
spoken  in  darkness  may  be  heard  to  its  shame  in 
the  light,  and  that  which  has  been  spoken  in  the 
ear  may  be  proclaimed  upon  the  house-tops  with 
the  detestation  it  deserves* 


X. 


>TAY  for  a  moment  the  pressure  with 
which  —  though,  perhaps,  all  unknown 
to  themselves  —  you  force  women  un- 
der the  yoke  of  marriage,  and  let  us 
look  without  passion  at  a  few  palpable,  common- 
place facts.  Women  must  marry  because  they 
need  a  protector.  They  are  weak,  and  cannot 
safely  go  down  life's  pathway  without  a  strong 
arm  to  lean  on.  What  kind  of  protection  do 
wives  actually  find  ?  I  once  looked  into  an  old- 
fashioned  house  and  I  saw  a  woman,  the  mother 
of  seven  sons,  heating  her  oven  with  the  boughs 
of  trees,  which  she  could  manage  only  by  resting 
the  branching  ends  on  the  backs  of  chairs  while 
the  trunk  ends  were  burning  in  the  oven,  and  as 
they  broke  into  coals  the  boughs  were  pushed  in, 
till  the  whole  was  consumed.  When  her  dinner 
was  preparing,  she  would  also  take  her  pails  and 
go  through  the  hot  summer  morning  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  the  spring  for  water.  Was  this  "pro- 
tection, freedom,  tender-liking,  ease."  This  was 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  177 

not  in  a  brutal  and  quarrelsome,  but  in  a  united 
and  Christian  family ;  father  and  mother  mem- 
bers of  an  Orthodox  church  in  good  and  regular 
standing,  owners  of  broad  lands  and  plenty  of 
money,  the  sons  rather  famous  for  their  filial  love 
and  duty.  It  was  not  an  unnatural  thing,  and 
excited  no  comment.  The  seven  sons,  all  their 
lives,  held  their  mother  in  affectionate  remem- 
brance, but  it  never  occurred  to  them  to  leave  the 
hay-fields  in  order  to  cut  wood  or  fetch  water. 

This  was  sixty  or  seventy  years  ago,  before  any 
of  you,  my  young  readers,  were  born. 

Once  a  rich  man  built  a  barn,  and  of  course  he 
had  "  a  raising."  To  the  raising  came  the  men 
and  women  from  all  the  country-side,  as  was  their 
wont.  For  the  men  was  a  supper  provided  with 
lavish  abundance.  Before  they  came  in,  thirty 
women  sat  down  to  supper.  Of  course,  when 
came  the  men's  turn  to  be  served,  these  women 
gave  assistance  at  the  tables,  but  all  the  previous 
cooking  and  arrangement  had  been  done  by  the 
women  of  the  family,  without  outside  help.  Be- 
sides the  hot  meat  supper,  the  men  were  furnished 
with  unlimited  drink ;  cider,  rum,  and  brandy 
were  carried  out  to  them  by  the  pailful.  An  ex- 
perienced carpenter  from  an  adjoining  village  de- 
clared that  he  would  take  the  timber  in  the  woods, 
hew  it  and  frame  it,  and  raise  it  for  what  the  mere 
festivities  of  raising  cost.  To  perform  one  little 
piece  of  work,  the  men  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of 

8*  L 


178  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

women  a  burden  ten  times  heavier  than  their  own, 
and  incurred  an  expense  which,  if  put  upon  their 
large,  square,  bare  dwelling-house,  would  have 
given  it  beauties  and  conveniences,  whose  ab- 
sence was  a  continual  and  severe  drawback  to  the 
women's  comfort.  They  turned  the  woman's  work 
into  hard  labor,  that  they  might  turn  their  own 
into  a  frolic.  Were  those  women  protected  ? 
That  was  only  one  instance,  but  that  was  the 
common  machinery  used  in  raising  barns.  That, 
too,  was  long  ago. 

Once  there  existed  a  village  containing  four 
schools,  which  were  in  session  three  months  in  the 
summer  and  three  months  in  the  winter.  At  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  terms,  the  "  commit- 
tee," of  whom  there  were  two  in  each  "  district,'' 
used  to  visit  the  schools  attended  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  adult  male  population  of  the  district. 
At  the  conclusion  of  this  visit,  one  of  the  district 
committee  at  the  beginning  of  the  term,  and  one 
at  the  end,  was  always  expected  to  invite  the  other 
seven  committee-men  and  all  the  visiting  neighbors 
to  his  house  to  dinner.  The  hard-working  farm- 
er's wife,  or  the  butcher's,  or  the  shoemaker's 
wife,  with  her  four,  five,  seven,  little  children 
around  her,  and  no  servant,  prepared  her  three 
roast  tuikeys,  her  three  plum-puddings,  and 
all  the  attendant  dishes ;  and  the  ten,  twenty, 
thirty  stalwart  farmers,  butchers,  shoemakers, 
booted  and  burly,  filed  into  her  best  room,  swal- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  179 

lowed  her  roast  turkeys  and  her  plum-puddings, 
with  no  assistance  from  her  except  the  most  valued 
service  of  flitting  around  the  table  to  keep  their 
plates  supplied,  and  then  filed  away  to  visit  an- 
other school  and  swarm  into  another  best  room, 
leaving  her  to  the  bones,  and  the  dishes,  and  the 
six  little  children.  And  this  is  man's  protection. 
But  this  was  the  old  times,  you  say.  Yes,  and 
you  look  back  upon  it  with  a  sigh,  and  call  it  the 
"good  old  times." 

Well,  the  times  have  changed.  They  are  no 
longer  old,  but  new.  Have  we  changed  with  them  ? 
In  a  town  I  wot  of,  the  doctors  have  a  periodical 
meeting.  They  assemble  in  the  evening  by  them- 
selves in  a  parlor,  discussing  no  one  knows  what, 
among  themselves,  till  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  when 
they  emerge  into  the  dining-room  and  have  a 
grand  set-to  upon  lobster  salads,  stewed  oysters, 
ices,  and  all  manner  of  frothy  fanfaronade.  A 
minister  is  going  to  be  ordained  in  a  country  vil- 
lage, and  the  village  families  round  about  heap  up 
their  tables  and  bid  in  all  comers  to  feasts  of  fat 
things.  A  conference  of  churches  is  held  in  the 
meeting-house,  and  the  same  newspaper  paragraph 
that  notes  the  logical  sermon  and  the  gratifying 
reports  of  revivals,  notes  also  the  good  things  which 
the  hospitable  citizens  provided,  and  the  urgency 
with  which  strangers  were  pressed  to  partake. 
One  wcvild  suppose  that  the  reasoning  of  the  fas- 
tidious old  Jews  was  suspected  to  have  descended 


180  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

to  our  own  day  and  race,  and  that  the  sons  of  men 
must  always  come  eating  and  drinking,  or  people 
will  say  they  have  a  devil. 

Every  advance  in  science  or  skill  seems  to  be 
attended  by  a  corresponding  advance  in  the  claims 
of  the  cooking-range.  The  palate  keeps  pace  with 
the  brain.  The  one  presents  a  claim  for  every 
victory  of  the  other.  The  left  hand  reaches  out 
to  clutch  what  the  right  hand  is  stretched  out  to 
offer  to  humanity. 

Now  you  all  think  this  is  very  strange,  —  a  most 
remarkable  way  of  looking  at  things,  a  most  inhos- 
pitable and  cold-blooded  view  to  take  of  society. 
What !  begrudge  a  little  pains  to  give  one's  friends 
a  pleasant  reception  !  and  that  only  once  a  year,  or 
a  month !  It  is  such  a  thing  as  was  never  heard 
of.  You  have  always  looked  upon  the  affair  as 
one  of  pleasure.  The  houses  which  you  have  en- 
Jered  opened  wide  to  you  their  doors.  You  met 
on  all  sides  smiles,  welcome,  and  good  cheer.  You 
never  for  a  moment  dreamed  or  heard  of  such  a 
thing  as  that  you  were  considered  a  trouble,  a 
dsitation.  Perhaps  you  were  not.  Very  likely 
you  were  held  in  honor;  but  these  customs  are 
burdensome  for  all  that.  .  You  must  remember 
that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  American  house- 
wives are  already  overborne  by  their  ordinary  do- 
mestic cares.  This  makes  the  whole  thing  wear 
a  very  different  aspect  from  what  it  otherwise 
would.  If  a  cup  is  half  full,  you  can  pour  in  a 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  181 

great  deal  more,  and  only  increase  the  cup's  worth, 
for  to  such  end  was  it  created  ;  but  if  it  is  already 
brimmed,  you  cannot  add  even  a  teaspoonful  with- 
out mischief,  and  if  you  suddenly  dash  in  another 
cupful,  you  will  make  a  sad  mess  of  it.  Now 
when  these  variousv  convocations  occur,  the  note 
of  preparation  is  sounded  long  beforehand,  and  the 
wail  of  weariness  echoes  long  afterwards.  This  is 
simply  a  statement  of  fact.  I  am  not  responsible 
for  the  fact.  I  did  not  create  it,  and  I  wish  it 
were  otherwise  ;  but  so  long  as  it  is  a  fact,  it 
is  much  better  that  it  should  be  known.  The 
woman  who  welcomed  you  so  warmly,  entreated 
you  so  tenderly,  entertained  you  so  agreeably,  had 
no  sooner  shut  the  door  behind  you,  when  you  had 
started  for  the  church,  than  the  sunshine  which  ra- 
diated from  your  presence  went  suddenly  behind 
a  cloud  of  odorous  steam  that  rose  up  from  stew- 
pan  and  gridiron.  While  you  were  listening  to 
the  eloquent  address,  she  was  flying  about  to 
have  the  dishes  washed  and  the  next  meal  ready. 
When,  after  your  hour's  pleasant  talk  in  the  even- 
ing over  the  day's  doings,  you  were  sleeping 
soundly  in  her  airy  chambers,  she,  as  noiselessly 
as  possible,  till  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock  at  night, 
was  sweeping  her  carpets  and  dusting  her  furniture 
in  the  only  time  which  she  could  rescue  from  the 
duties  of  hospitality  for  that  purpose.  I  maintain 
that,  however  agreeable  are  these  social  conven- 
tions, they  are  bought  too  dearly  at  such  a  price. 


182  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

A  great  many  women  who  suffer  from  such  causes 
never  think  of  complaining.  They  are  hospi- 
table from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  ;  but  how- 
ever sincere  their  welcome,  pies  do  not  bake  them- 
selves. Never  a  cow  went  in  at  one  end  of  an 
oven  to  come  out  at  the  other  a  nicely-browned 
sirloin  of  beef.  Never  a  barrel  of  flour  and  a 
bowl  of  yeast  rushed  spontaneously  together  and 
evoked  a  batch  of  bread,  nor  did  the  hen-fever  at 
its  hottest  height  ever  produce  bantam  or  Shang- 
hai that  could  lay  eggs  which  would  leap  lightly 
ceiling- ward  to  come  down  an  omelet.  All  these 
things  require  time  and  pains,  and  generally  the 
time  and  pains  of  people  who,  by  reason  of  the  stern 
necessities  of  their  position,  have  none  of  either  to 
spare.  It  is  not  just  to  say  that  these  emergencies 
come  only  once  in  a  great  while,  and  are  therefore 
too  insignificant  to  be  reckoned.  The  same  inju- 
diciousness  which  crops  out  in  a  conference  of 
churches  this  week  will  reappear  in  a  town-meeting 
next  week,  and  in  a  mass-meeting  the  week  after, 
and  a  teachers'-meeting  the  week  after  that.  The 
same  marital  ignorance  and  inconsiderateness  that 
brings  on  one  thing  will  bring  on  another  thing, 
and,  except  in  the  few  cases  where  money  and 
other  ample  resources  enable  one  to  secure  ade- 
quate service,  the  wrong  side,  the  prose  side,  the 
hard  side  of  these  pleasant  "  occasions  "  comes  on 
the  wife ;  who,  whether  she  meet  it  gladly,  or  only 
acquiescently,  or  reluctantly,  is  surely  worn  away 


A   NElV  ATMOSPHERE.  183 

by  the  attrition.  However  welcome  society  may 
be  to  her,  she  cannot  encounter  these  odds  with 
impunity,  and  in  a  majority  of  cases  the  odds  arc 
so  heavy  that  she  has  neither  time  nor  spirits  to 
enjoy  the  society.  All  this  wear  and  tear  is  un- 
necessary. The  doctors  w^ould  be  better  off  to 
go  home  without  their  hot  suppers.  There  is  sel- 
dom, in  cities,  any  necessity  for  feeding  masses  of 
people,  because  professional  feeding-houses  are  al- 
ways at  hand,  and  people  seldom  congregate  in  the 
country  except  in  summer,  when  each  man  might, 
with  the  smallest  trouble,  carry  his  own  sandwich, 
and  eat  it  on  the  grass,  surrounded  by  bis  kinsfolk 
and  acquaintance,  with  just  as  much  hilarity  as  if 
he  were  sitting  in  a  hard-cushioned  high  chair  in 
a  country-house  parlor.  Enjoyment  would  not  be 
curtailed  on  the  one  side,  and  would  be  greatly 
promoted  on  the  other. 

The  Essex  Institute  has  its  Field-meetings,  — 
its  pleasant  bi-weekly  summer  visits  into  the  coun- 
try, and  is  everywhere  welcome.  During  the  morn- 
ing it  roams  over  the  fields,  laying  its  inquisitive 
hands  on  every  green  and  blossoming  and  creep- 
ing thing.  The  insects  in  the  air,  the  fishes  in  the 
brook,  the  spiders  in  their  webs,  the  butterfly  on 
its  stalk,  feel  instinctively  that  their  hour  is  come, 
and  converge  spontaneously  into  their  little  tin  sar- 
cophagi. At  noonday  hosts  of  heavy  baskets  un- 
lade their  toothsome  freight,  and  a  merry  feast  is 
seasoned  with  Attic  salt.  In  the  afternoon,  tho 


184  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

farm-wagons  come  driving  up,  and  the  farm-horsos 
lash  their  contented  sides  under  the  friendly  trees, 
while  city  and  country  join  in  the  grave  or  spark- 
ling or  instructive  talk  which  fixes  the  wisdom 
caught  in  the  morning  rambles.  At  night,  young 
men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children,  go  their 
several  ways  homeward,  just  as  happy  as  if  they  had 
left  behind  them  a  dozen  family-mothers  wearied 
into  fretfulness  and  illness  by  much  serving.  They 
depend  upon  no  one  for  entertainment  and  owe  no 
tiresome  formalities.  Go,  all  manner  of  convo- 
cations, and  do  likewise. 

Note,  if  you  please,  that  it  is  not  feasting  which 
is  objectionable.  Truly  or  falsely,  eating  has  al- 
ways been  held  to  be  the  promoter  and  attendant 
of  conviviality,  the  mouth  opening  the  way  at  the 
same  time  to  the  palate  and  the  brain.  If  men  can 
provide  feasts  without  laying  burdens  upon  their 
wives,  let  them  do  it  and  welcome  ;  but  if  the  ma- 
terial part  of  the  feast  cannot  be  accomplished 
without  so  serious  an  increase  of  a  wife's  labor  as 
to  destroy  or  diminish  her  capacity  for  enjoying 
the  mental  part,  it  ought  not  to  be  attempted. 

You  may  say  that  women  are  as  much  to  blame 
in  this  thing  as  men  ;  that  the  great  profusion, 
variety,  and  elaborateness  of  their  meals  are  as 
much  of  their  own  motion  as  of  men's ;  that  they 
are  indeed  proud  of  and  delight  in  showing  their 
culinary  resources  ;  that  they  gather  sewing-cir- 
cles of  their  own  sex  without  any  hint,  help,  01 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  185 

wish  from  the  other,  and  make  just  as  great  table- 
displays  on  such  occasions  as  on  any  others  that  I 
have  mentioned,  —  all  of  which  may  be  very  true. 
So  the  Doctor  Southsides  for  many  years  main- 
tained that  slavery  must  be  a  good  thing,  because 
the  slaves  were  content  in  it.  So  the  Austrian 
despots  point  to  peasants  dancing  on  the  green- 
sward as  the  justification  of  their  paternal  govern- 
ment, their  absolute  tyranny  ;  as  if  degradation  is 
any  less  disastrous  when  its  victims  are  sunk  so 
low  as  to  be  unconscious  of  their  situation,  —  as  if, 
indeed,  that  were  not  the  lowest  pit  of  all.  How 
came  women,  made  as  truly  as  man  in  the  image 
and  likeness  of  God,  to  be  reduced  to  the  level  of 
sacrificing  time,  ease,  intellectual  and  social  good, 
to  the  low  pride  of  sensual  display?  Is  it  not 
the  fault  of  those  whose  walk  and  conversation 
have  made  the  care  of  eating  and  drinking  the 
one  thing  needful  in  a  woman's  education,  the 
chief  end  of  her  life  ;  who  have  not  hesitated 
to  degrade  the  high  prerogatives  of  an  immortal 
soul  to  the  gratification  of  their  own  fleshly  lusts ; 
who  have  manoeuvred  so  adroitly  that  the  tickling 
of  their  own  palates  has  become  a  more  important 
and  a  more  influential  thing  than  the  building  up 
of  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Profusion  and 
variety  and  elaborateness  are  of  the  wife's  own 
motion  ;  but  the  more  profuse,  varied,  and  Elabo- 
rate her  display,  the  more  you  praise  her.  The 
snore  ingenuity  her  feast  displays,  the  more  in- 


186  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

geniously  you  combine  words  and  exhaust  your 
rhetoric  to  express  approbation  and  delight.  Your 
continued  and  conjoint  praise  is  a  far  stronger  in- 
centive than  the  clubs  and  thongs  with  which  hus- 
bands have  been  sometimes  wont  to  urge  their 
wives  to  action,  and  which  you  recognize  as  force. 
You  do  not  compel  her,  but,  directly  and  in- 
directly, with  an  almost  irresistible  potency,  for 
years  and  years  you  have  enjoined  it  upon  her, 
till  your  moral  pressure  has  become  as  powerful  as 
any  display  of  physical  strength  could  be.  And 
having,  in  French  fashion,  set  up  a  cook  on  the 
shrine  of  your  worship,  is  it  an  extenuation  of 
your  offence,  that  women  now  vie  with  each  other. 
in  striving  to  merit  and  attain  such  an  apothe- 
osis ?  Having  caused  your  female  children  to  pass 
through  the  kitchen-fire  to  the  Moloch  of  your 
adoration,  are  you  so  illogical  as  to  suppose  that 
they  will  come  out  without  any  smell  of  fire  upon 
their  garments  ? 

You  are  not  to  blame  for  the  thistle-field.  You 
did  not  make  the  thistles  grow.  No  ;  but  you 
planted  the  seed,  you  watered  the  soil,  you  sup- 
plied all  the  conditions  of  growth ;  and  when  the 
Lord  of  the  vineyard  cometh  seeking  fruit,  and 
findeth  only  thistles,  what  shall  he  do  but  miser- 
ably destroy  those  wicked  men  and  give  the  vine- 
yard*unto  others  ? 

These  are  only  the  difficult  hills  over  which 
you  urge  women  to  climb  when  you  urge  them 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  187 

on  to  marriage.  Of  the  levels  between,  of  the 
plains  over  which  lies  the  every-day  path  of  the 
great  majority  of  married  women,  I  have  spoken 
with  sufficient  distinctness  in  another  connection. 
Whether  they  are  the  wives  of  inefficient  or  of 
enterprising  men  makes  small  difference.  The 
overwhelming  probability  is,  that  your  blooming 
bride  will  encounter  a  fate  similar  to  that  of  the 
prince  in  the  fairy-tale,  who,  enchanted  by  an 
ugly  old  writch,  was  compelled  to  spend  his  life  sit- 
ting inside  a  great  iron  stove  ;  only,  instead  of 
sitting  comfortably  inside,  she  will  be  kept  in  per- 
petual motion  outside.  Poverty  or  wealth,  igno- 
rance or  education,  in  the  husband,  may  affect  the 
quality,  but  scarcely  the  quantity,  of  the  wife's 
work.  Hard,  grinding,  depressing  toil  is  not  the 
peculiar  lot  of  the  poor  housewife.  It  is  the  "pro- 
tection," the  "  cherishing,"  which  men  "well  to 
do  in  the  world  "  award  their  wives,  —  the  thriving 
farmers,  the  butchers,  the  blacksmiths,  who  "  get  a 
good  living,"  and  perhaps  have  "  money  at  inter- 
est." What  advantageth  it  a  woman  to  be  the  wife 
of  a  "  rising  man  "  ?  He  rises  by  reading,  by  rea- 
soning, by  attention  to  his  business,  by  intercourse 
with  intelligent  people,  by  journeys,  by  constant 
growth,  and  constant  contact  with  stimulating 
circumstances ;  but  she  is  tied  down  by  the 
endless  details  of  housekeeping  and  the  nursery. 
Growth,  intelligence,  and  rising  in  the  world  are 
not  for  her.  His  increasing  business  and  fair  po- 


188  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

litical  prospects  only  bring  more  cares  to  her,  and 
bring  them  long  before  any  permanent  increase  of 
income  justifies,  or  can  command,  anything  approxi- 
mating to  adequate  assistance  in  the  home  depart- 
ment. And  his  increase  of  business,  his  widening 
circle  of  acquaintance,  are  sure  to  take  him  more 
away  from  home,  to  absorb  more  of  'his  time 
and  his  thoughts,  and  so  not  only  create  heavier 
burdens,  but  call  to  other  tasks  the  strength  that 
ought  to  bear  them.  The  selfsame  circumstan- 
ces which  raise  the  man  depress  the  woman.  If 
he  does  not  make  especial  effort  to  upbear  her 
with  himself,  the  result  will  presently  be,  that, 
while  he  rides  on  the  crest  of  the  wave,  she  is  en- 
gulfed in  the  trough  of  the  sea.  There  is  small 
reason  to  suppose  he,  will  make  the  effort.  It  is 
the  men  in  "comfortable  circumstances,"  shrewd, 
with  an  eye  to  the  main  chance,  who  often  sin  most 
deeply  in  this  respect.  Their  main  chance  does 
not  include  husbandly  love,  wifely  repose.  It  is  a 
part  of  their  "business  talent"  to  turn  their  wives 
to  account  just  as  they  turn  everything  else.  She 
is  a  partner  in  the  concern.  She  is  a  part  of  the 
stock  in  trade.  She  is  one  of  the  stepping-stones 
to  eminence  or  competence.  All  that  she  can 
earn  or  save,  all  the  labor  or  supervision  that  can 
be  wrested  from  her,  is  so  much  added  to  the 
working  capital ;  and  so  long  as  she  does  not  lose 
her  health,  so  long  as  she  remains  in  good  work- 
ing order,  they  never  suspect  that  anything  is 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  189 

wrong.  If  she  were  not  doing  the  house-work  or 
taking  care  of  the  children,  she  would  not  be  do- 
ing anything  that  would  bring  in  money,  or  nearly 
so  much  money,  as  her  economy  and  foresight 
save.  Even  if  she  does  lose  her  health,  her  hus- 
band scarcely  so  much  as  thinks  of  laying  the  sin 
at  his  own  door.  It  was  not  hard  work  or  low 
spirits,  it  was  rheumatism  or  slow  fever,  that 
brought  her  down.  If  her  life  lapses  away,  and 
she  descends  into  the  grave  before  she  has  lived 
out  half  her  days,  her  sorrowing  husband  lays  it  to 
the  account  of  a  mysterious  Providence,  and  — 
"the  world  is  all  before  him  where  to  choose." 

Have  I  drawn  a  cold,  harsh  picture?  The  cold- 
ness and  harshness  are  not  alone  in  the  drawing. 
It  spreads  before  you  every  day  and  all  around 
you :  a  picture  whose  figures  throb  with  hidden 
life,  —  a  very  tableau  vivant.  What  else  can  be  ex- 
pected from  our  social  principles  ?  What  kind  of 
husbands  do  you  look  for  in  men  who  have  set 
their  affections  on  fortune  or  fame  ?  What  kind  of 
husbands  can  a  society  turn  out  that  publicly  and 
shamelessly  avows  the  preservation  and  increase 
of  property  to  be  the  object  of  marriage  ?  A  peo- 
ple's practice  is  sometimes,  but  very  rarely,  better 
than  its  principles.  If  wealth  or  position  be  the 
chief  goal  of  a  man's  ambition,  he  only  acts  con- 
sistently in  harnessing  his  wife  along  with  all  his 
other  powers  and  possessions  to  his  chariot.  Look- 
ing at  it  dispassionately,  freed  from  the  glamour 


190  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

which  popular  opinion  throws  upon  our  eyes,  it 
would  seem  to  be  better  for  a  woman  to  marry 
the  Grand  Turk,  since  a  friendly  bowstring  might 
put  a  period  to  her  trouble,  or  she  might  hope  to 
be  tied  up  in  a  sack  and  safely  and  quietly  de- 
posited in  the  Bosphorus  ;  while  in  America  there 
is  no  such  possibility.  You  must  live  on  to  the 
end,  come  it  never  so  tardily. 

And  how  far  extends  even  so  much  protection 
as  this,  —  the  protection  which  consists  in  appro 
priating  a  woman's  time  and  strength,  and  de- 
teriorating both  her  mind  and  body  by  incessant, 
chiefly  menial,  and  not  unfrequently  repulsive  toil, 
and  giving  her  in  return  —  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter,  which,  if  female  labor  were  justly  paid, 
she  could  earn  by  one  fourth  of  the  effort,  and 
which  is  often  bestowed  with  more  or  less  reluc- 
tance and  unpleasant  conditioning,  as  a  favor  rather 
than  a  right?  Look  around  upon  all  the  people 
whose  circumstances  you  know,  and  see  if  the 
number  of  families  is  small  whose  support  depends 
partly  upon  the  mother  ?  Do  you  know  any  fam- 
ilies which  depend  chiefly  or  entirely  upon  the 
mother  ?  Do  you  know  any,  where  the  husbands 
are  invalids,  and  have  laid  by  nothing  for  a  rainy 
day  ?  any,  where  the  husbands  are  lazy  and  in- 
efficient, and  perhaps  intemperate,  and  neglect  to 
provide  for  their  families  ?  any,  where  they  have 
been  unfortunate  and  lost  all,  and  only  the  moth- 
ers courage  and  energy  supply  deficiency  ?  any, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  191 

where   the   husband   has  died  insolvent,  and  the 
survivor  struggles  single-handed  against  the  tide  ? 

C?O  &  O 

any,  where  the  husband's  death  was  the  lifting  of 
an  incubus,  which  removed,  the  family  seemed  at 
once  to  be  prosperous  and  happy  ?  Do  you  ever 
see  a  woman,  with  a  family  of  children  and  a  hus- 
band, taking  the  entire  care  of  her  household,  and, 
besides  this,  earning  a  little  money  at  knitting  or 
sewing  or  washing  ?  Judging  from  my  own  ob- 
servation, setting  aside  inability  from  disease,  where 
you  find  one  woman  who  is  a  dead-weight  upon 
her  energetic  husband,  you  will  find  seven  men 
who  are  a  dead-weight  upon  their  energetic  wives. 
But  all  this  is  "  protection."  All  this  is  the 
superior  sex  cherishing  the  inferior  ;  the  chival- 
rous sex  defending  the  helpless ;  the  strong  caring 
for  the  delicate  ;  the  able  providing  for  the  de- 
pendent. To  all  this  you  urge  women  when  you 
goad  them  on  to  marriage.  And  you  do  well  to 
apply  your  goad.  You  are  wise  in  your  genera- 
tion, when  you  create  such  an  overwhelming  out- 
side pressure ;  without  it,  women  would  not  go 
down  quick  into  the  pit.  Left  to  their  own  un- 
prejudiced reason,  to  their  own  clear  eyes  and 
rapid  and  just  conclusions,  they  would  not  choose 
the  greatest  of  all  evils,  —  a  living  death.  In  vain 
is  the  net  spread  in  the  sight  of  any  bird.  If  you 
cannot  help  this  state  of  things,  where  is  your 
logic  ?  If  you  can  help  it,  where  is  your  con- 
science ? 


XL 

- 

jOU  will  say  that  I  have  left  the  main 
element  out  of  the  calculation ;  that  I 
have  looked  at  marriage  only  in  respect 
of  its  material  combinations,  in  which 
light  it  appears  but  as  a  body  without  the  soul ; 
whereas,  in  its  real  wholeness  it  is  penetrated  by 
love  which  transforms  all  common  scenes,  persons, 
and  duties  "into  something  rich  and  strange." 
But  will  truth  permit  one  to  view  it  otherwise  ? 
Is  marriage,  as  we  see  it  practically  carried  out, 
penetrated  with  this  vivifying  and  spiritualizing 
element  ?  Love,  indeed,  calls  nothing  common  or 
unclean ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  homely  fact,  is  there 
love  enough  in  ordinary  housekeeping  to  keep  it 
sweet  ?  The  first  year  or  two  runs  well,  but  how 
much  living  love  survives  the  first  olympiad  ? 
How  much  outlasts  a  decade  ?  In  marriages 
openly  mercenary,  we  do  not  count  on  finding  af- 
fection ;  where  they  are  entered  into  honestly,  are 
they  followed  by  different  results  ?  If  a  woman 
marries  for  money,  or  station,  or  respectability, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  193 

she  may  compass  her  ends,  but  if  slie  marries  for 
love,  are  not  the  odds  against  her  ?  Motive  affects 
her  character,  but  scarcely  her  fate.  Her  love 
will  be  wasted  on  a  thankless  heart ;  she  may  con- 
sider herself  fortunate  if  it  be  not  trampled  under  a 
brutal,  or  perhaps  only  a  heedless  foot.  Love  in 
marriage  !  Marriage  is  the  grave  of  love.  Look 
at  best  for  association,  habit,  support,  tranquillity, 
freedom  from  outside  compassion,  in  marriage,  but 
do  not  look  for  love. 

On  such  a  topic  as  this  the  truth  must  be  felt 
rather  than  proved,  yet  authority  is  not  wanting. 
So  eminent  and  trustworthy  a  man  as  Paley,  in 
his  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy,  having  spoken 
of  the  necessity  that  a  man  and  wife  should  make 
mutual  concession,  adds  :  "  A  man  and  woman 
in  love  with  each  other  do  this  insensibly  ;  but 
love  is  neither  general  nor  durable  ;  and  where 
that  is  wanting,  no  lessons  of  duty,  no  delicacy 
of  sentiment,  will  go  half  so  far  with  the  gen- 
erality of  mankind  as  this  one  intelligible  reflec- 
tion, that  they  must  each  make  the  best  of  their 
bargain." 

This  work  was  published  in  1785.  We  have 
all  studied  it  at  school,  under  the  guidance  of  men 
and  women,  married  and  single.  Its  positions 
have  been  variously,  frequently,  and  sometimes 
successfully  assailed.  But  I  have  never  heard  a 
whisper  breathed  or  seen  a  line  written  impugning 
his  statement,  that  love  is  neither  general  nor 
9  M 


194  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

durable.  This  statement  is  not  made  under  the 
influence  of  passion,  or  to  compass  any  purpose, 
but  is  simply  the  basis  of  an  argument,  —  a  gen- 
eral truth,  as  if  he  should  say  that  man  is  en- 
dowed with  a  conscience. 

In  that  most  fascinating  of  biographies,  the 
"  Memoirs  of  Frederic  Perth es,"  written  by  his 
son,  and  published  in  Edinburgh,  we  have  a  very 
charming  picture  of  home  life.  Perthes,  a  man 
known  throughout  Germany,  the  intimate  friend 
of  her  most  distinguished  scholars  and  statesmen, 
is  the  husband  of  Caroline,  a  woman  whose  char- 
acter, indirectly  but  minutely  and  impressively 
portrayed  in  her  husband's  memoirs,  seems  to  be 
without  flaw.  Fresh,  simple,  truthful,  sensible, 
sympathetic,  affectionate,  educated,  and  accom- 
plished, the  qualities  of  her  head  and  heart  alike 
command  something  deeper  than  respect.  As 
daughter,  wife,  mother,  and  woman  she  is  equally 
admirable.  Her  letters  to  her  husband  and  her 
children  are  as  full  of  wisdom  as  of  love.  Every- 
where she  shines  white  and  clear  and  pure  as  the 
moon,  yet  warm,  beneficent,  and  bountiful  as  the 
sun.  It  is  only  as  the  wife  of  Perthes  that  we 
know  her ;  but,  magnificent  as  Perthes  unquestion- 
ably was,  he  pales  before  the  most  beautiful,  most 
gracious,  most  womanly  woman  whom  he  won  to 
his  heart  and  home.  No  suspicion  of  her  own 
exceeding  excellence  ever  seems  to  have  dawned 
upon  her  own  mind.  Her  Perthes  was  the  object 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  195 

ot  her  deep  respect  and  her  lasting  love.  This 
fact  of  itself  shows  that  he  must  have  been  a  man 
of  extraordinary  conjugal  merit.  His  relations  to 
her  must  have  been  of  a  very  rare  delicacy.  He 
must  have  bestowed  an  attention  and  been  capable 
of  an  appreciation  far  beyond  the  ordinary  meas- 
ure, or  such  a  woman  as  his  wife  could  not  have 
written  after  several  years  of  marriage,  "  The  old 
song  is  every  morning  new,  that,  if  possible,  I 
love  Perthes  still  better  than  the  day  before."  If 
one  may  not  find  satisfaction  in  the  contemplation 
of  a  marriage  passed  under  circumstances  so  favor- 
ing, where  shall  he  look  for  satisfaction  ?  Never- 
theless, listen  to  a  story  lightly  told  by  her  son,  the 
biographer,  the  learned  law-professor  of  the  world- 
renowned  Bonn,  —  told  as  the  old  prophets  are 
supposed  to  have  frequently  uttered  their  prophe- 
cies, with  but  the  most  vague  and  imperfect  com- 
prehension of  what  it  was  that  they  were  saying. 

u  With  her  lively  fancy,  and  a  heart  ever  seek- 
ing sympathy,  she  felt  it  to  be  hard  that  Perthes, 
laden  with  cares,  business,  and  interests  of  all  kinds, 
could  devote  so  little  time  to  her  and  the  children. 
4  My  hope  becomes  every  day  less  that  Perthes  will 
be  able  to  make  any  such  arrangement  of  his  time 
as  will  leave  a  few  quiet  hours  for  me  and  the  chil- 
dren. There  is  nothing  that  I  can  do  but  to  love 
him,  and  to  bear  him  ever  in  my  heart,  till  it  shall 
please  God  to  bring  us  together  to  some  region 
where  we  shall  no  longer  need  house  or  housekeep- 


196  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

ing,  and  where  there  are  neither  bills  to  be  paid 
nor  books  to  be  kept.  Perthes  feels  it  a  heavy 
trial,  but  he  keeps  up  his  spirits,  and  for  this  I 
thank  God.'  To  these  and  kindred  feelings  which 
she  had  long  cherished  in  her  heart  Caroline  now 
gave  expression  in  letters  which  she  wrote  to 
Perthes  during  his  absence.  After  eighteen  years 
of  trial  and  vicissitude,  her  affection  for  her  hus- 
band had  retained  all  its  youthful  freshness  ;  life 
and  love  had  not  become  merely  habitual,  they 
remained  fresh  and  spontaneous  as  in  the  bride. 
She  always  gave  free  utterance  to  her  feelings,  in 
a  manner  at  once  unrestrained  and  characteristic, 
and  felt  deeply  when  Perthes,  as  a  husband,  ad- 
dressed her  otherwise  than  he  had  done  as  a  bride- 
groom. During  Perthes's  detention  for  some  weeks 
in  Leipsic,  this  state  of  feeling  found  expression  on 
both  sides,  half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest.  *  You 
indeed  renounced  all  sensibility  for  this  year,  be- 
cause of  your  many  occupations,'  wrote  Caroline  a 
few  days  after  her  husband's  departure  ;  '  but  I, 
for  my  part,  when  I  write  to  you,  cannot  do  so 
without  deep  feeling  ;  for  the  thought  of  you  ex- 
cites all  the  sensibility  of  which  my  heart  is  capa- 
ble. Not  a  line  have  I  yet  received.  Tell  me,  is 
it  not  rather  hard  that  you  did  not  write  me  from 
Brunswick  ?  At  least  I  thought  so,  and  felt  very 
much  that  your  companion  G.  should  have  written 
to  his  newly-married  wife,  and  you  not  to  me.  It 
is  the  first  time  you  have  ever  gone  on  a  journey 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  197 

without  writing  to  me  from  your  first  resting-place. 
I  have  been  reading  over  your  earlier  letter  j  to 
find  satisfaction  to  myself,  in  some  measure  at  least, 
but  it  has  been  a  mixed  pleasure.  Last  year,  at 
Blankenese,  you  promised  me  many  happy  hours 
of  mutual  companionship.  I  have  not  yet  had 
them  ;  and  yet  you  owe  many  such  to  me,  —  yes, 
you  do  indeed.'  Perthes  answered :  '  You  write, 
telling  me  that  I  have  renounced  all  sensibility  for 
this  year.  This  is  not  true,  my  dearest  heart ; 
it  is  quite  otherwise.  I  think  that,  after  so  many 
years  of  mutual  interchange  of  feeling  and  of 
thought,  and  when  people  understand  each  other 
thoroughly,  there  is  an  end  of  all  those  little  ten- 
dernesses of  expression,  which  represent  a  relation- 
ship that  is  still  piquant  because  new.  Be  content 
with  me,  dear  child,  we  understand  each  other.  I 
did  not  write  to  you  from  Brunswick,  because  we 
passed  through  quickly.  Moreover,  it  is  not  fair 
to  compare  me  with  my  companion,  the  bridegroom ; 
youth  has  its  features,  and  so  also  has  middle  age. 
It  would  be  absurd,  indeed,  were  I  now  to  be  look- 
ing by  moonlight  under  the  trees  and  among  the 
clouds  for  young  maidens,  as  I  did  twenty  years 
ago,  or  were  to  imagine  young  ladies  to  be  angels. 
Nor  would  it  become  you  any  better  if  you  were 
to  be  dancing  a  gallopade,  or  clambering  up  trees  in 
fits  of  love  enthusiasm.  We  should  not  find  fault 
with  our  having  grown  older :  only  be  satisfied, 
give  God  the  praise,  and  exercise  patience  and  for- 
bearance with  me/  ': 


198  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

Can  anything  be  more  natural  than  Caroline's 
gei.tle  remonstrance?  Can  anything  be  more 
hopeless  than  Perthes's  shuffling  reply  ?  Lonely 
wife,  languishing  for  a  draught  of  the  olden  tender- 

~  i~5  O  O 

ness,  and  with  nothing  to  medicine  her  weariness 
but  the  information  that  it  had  all  come  to  an  end ; 
reaching  out  for  a  little  of  the  love  that  was  her 
life,  and  met  by  the  assertion  that  climbing  trees 
was  not  becoming  to  a  woman  of  her  age  !  It  is 
good  to  know  that  she  replied  with  spirit,  though 
still  with  no  diminution  of  her  immeasurable  love. 
"Your  last  letter  is  indeed  a  strange-one.  I  must 
again  say,  that  my  affection  knows  neither  youth 
nor  age,  and  is  eternal.  I  can  detect  no  change, 
except  that  I  now  Jcnow  what  formerly  I  only  hoped 
and  believed.  I  never  took  you  for  an  angel,  nor 
do  I  now  take  you  for  the  reverse  ;  neither  did  I 
ever  beguile  you  by  assuming  an  angel's  form  or 
angelic  manners.  I  never  danced  the  gallopade, 
or  climbed  trees,  and  am  now  exactly  what  I  was 
then,  only  rather  older  ;  and  you  must  take  me  as 
I  am,  my  Perthes  ;  —  in  one  word,  love  me,  and 
tell  me  so  sometimes,  and  that  is  all  I  want." 

Men,  you  to  whose  keeping  a  woman's  heart 
is  intrusted,  can  you  hear  that  simple  prayer, — 
"  Love  me,  and  tell  me  so  sometimes,  and  that 
is  all  I  want "  ? 

Perthes,  shamed  out  of  his  worldliness  into  at 
least  an  attempt  at  sympathy,  replies :  "  Your 
answer  was  just  what  it  ought  to  have  been  ;  only 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE  199 

don't  forget  that  my  inward  love  for  you  is  as  eter- 
nal as  yours  is  for  me  ;  but  I  have  so  many  things 
to  think  of." 

Undoubtedly,  after  all  his  evasion,  the  truth 
came  out  at  last,  —  "  I  have  so  many  things  to  think 
of."  It  was  the  best  excuse  he  could  offer,  and  it 
is  a  great  pity  he  had  not  brought  it  forward  in 
the  beginning.  He  had  suffered  the  cares  of  this 
world  and  the  deceitfulness  of  business  to  choke 
his  love ;  but  it  would  have  been  far  more  honor- 
able to  himself  and  far  more  comfortable  to  his 
wife  to  confess  it  frankly,  than  to  affirm  his  in- 
difference and  neglect  to  be  the  natural  course  of 
events.  A  love  overgrown  with  weeds  may  be 
revived,  but  for  a  love  lost  by  natural  decay 
there  is  no  resurrection.  "I  did  not  write  to 
you  from  Brunswick,  because  we  passed  through 
quickly."  Did  he  pass  through  any  more  quickly 
than  his  companion  G.,  who  found  time  to  write 
to  his  newly-married  wife  ?  "  We  understand 
each  other  thoroughly,  and  therefore  there  is  an 
end  of  all  those  little  tendernesses  of  expression"  ; 
but  there  was  no  end  of  them  on  Caroline's  part. 
Her  understanding  was  not  less  thorough  than 
his,  yet  her  love  craved  expression.  "My  in- 
ward love  for  you  is  as  eternal  as  yours  for  me"; 
yet  just  before  he  had  been  pleading  his  increasing 
years  as  an  excuse  for  his  diminishing  tenderness, 
while  Caroline's  stanch  heart  declared,  "  My  affec- 
tion knows  neither  youth  nor  age,  and  is  eternal. 


200  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

I  can  detect  no  change,  except  that  I  now  Tmoio 
what  formerly  I  only  hoped  and  believed."  ShorU 
ly  afterwards,  while  spending  a  summer  at  Wands» 
beck  for  her  health,  almost  daily  letters  were  ex- 
changed between  herself  and  her  husband.  "  While 
those  of  Perthes  were  devoted  to  warnings  and  en- 
treaties to  take  care  of  her  health,  (a  cheap  sub- 
stitute for  affection  which  Perthes  was  not  alone 
in  employing,)  the  few  'lines  in  which  Caroline 
was  wont  to  reply  were  full  of  expressions  of  love, 
and  of  sorrow  on  account  of  their  necessary  sepa- 
ration. 4  I  am  seated  in  tlie  garden,'  she  writes, 
4  and  all  my  merry  little  birds  are  around  me.  I 
let  the  sun  shine  upon  me,  to  make  me  well  if  he 
can.  God  grant  it !  if  it  only  be  so  far  as  to  en- 
able me  to  discharge  my  duties  to  my  family.' — 
4 1  hope,  my  dear  Perthes,  that  you  will  again  have 
pleasure  in  me  ;  the  waters  seem  really  to  do  me 
good.  Come  to-morrow,  only  not  too  late.  My 
very  soul  longs  for  you.'  — '  You  shall  be  thanked 
for  the  delightful  hours  that  I  enjoyed  with  you 
yesterday,'  she  writes,  after  a  short  visit  to  Ham- 
burg, 4  and  for  the  sight  of  your  dear,  kind  face, 
as  I  got  out  of  the  carriage.'  — fc  I  only  live  where 
you  are  with  me.  Send  Matthias  to  me,  if  it  does 
not  interfere  with  his  lessons :  if  I  cannot  have  the 
father,  I  must  put  up  with  the  son.'  — 4  The  chil- 
dren enjoy  their  freedom,  and  are  my  joy  and  de- 
light  But  you,  dear  old  father  !  you,  too, 

are  my  joy  and  delight.     Let  me  have  a  little  let- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  201 

ier ;  I  cannot  help  longing  for  one,  and  will  read 
it,  when  I  get  it,  ten  times  over.'  —  'It  is  eighteen 
years  to-day  since  I  wrote  you  the  last  letter  be- 
fore our  marriage,  and  sent  you  my  first  request 
about  the  little  black  cross.  I  have  asked  for  many 
things  in  the  eighteen  years  that  have  passed  since 
then,  dear  Perthes,  and  what  shall  I  ask  to-day  ? 
You  can  tell,  for  you  know  me  well,  and  know 
that  I  have  never  said  an  untrue  word  to  you. 
Only  you  cannot  quite  know  my  indescribable  af- 
fection, for  it  is  infinite.  Perthes,  my  heart  is  full 
of  joy  and  sadness,  —  would  that  you  were  here  ! 
This  day  eighteen  years  ago  I  did  not  long  for 
you  more  fervently  or  more  ardently  than  now. 
I  thank  God  continually  for  everything.  I  am 
and  remain  yours  in  time,  and,  though  I  know  not 
how,  for  eternity,  too  !  Be  in  a  very  good  hu- 
mor, when  you  conie  to-morrow.  Affection  is 
certainly  the  greatest  wonder  in  heaven  or  on 
earth,  and  the  only  thing  that  I  can  represent  to 
myself  as  insatiable  throughout  eternity.' " 

Do  these  extracts  indicate  that  many  years  of 
mutual  interchange  of  feeling  and  thought  had 
put  an  end  to  little  tendernesses  of  expression  ? 
Does  his  love  seem  as  eternal  as  hers  ?  It  is  true 
that  he  falls  back  upon  "  inward  "  love ;  but  we 
only  know  saints  in  their  bodies.  Inward  love 
that  denies  outward  manifestation  may  satisfy  men, 
but  it  will  never  pass  current  with  women.  Little 
children,  who  have  been  idle  during  their  study- 

9* 


202  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

hour,  will  often  excuse  their  failures  by  declaring 
that  they  "  know,  but  cannot  think."  No  teacher, 
however,  is  imposed  on.  A  scholar  that  does  not 
know  his  lesson  well  enough  to  recite  it,  does  not 
know  it  at  all.  A  love  that  does  not,  in  one  way  or 
another,  express  itself  sufficiently  to  satisfy  the 
object  of  its  love,  is  not  love.  To  satisfy  the  object 
of  its  love,  I  say,  for  love  can  never  satisfy  itself. 
It  was  not  love  that  Perthes's  letter  contained,  but 
an  apology  for  its  absence. 

What  men  love  is  the  comforts  of  the  married 
state,  not  the  person  who  provides  them,  —  wifely 
duties  rather  than  the  wife.  A  man  enjoys  his 
home.  He  likes  the  cheery  fireside,  the  dressing- 
gown  and  slippers,  the  bright  tea-urn  and  the 
brighter*eyes  behind  it.  He  likes  to  see  boys  and 
girls  growing  up  around  him,  bearing  his  name 
and  inheriting  his  qualities.  He  likes  to  have  his 
clothes  laid  ready  to  his  hand,  stockings  in  their 
integrity,  buttons  firm  in  their  places,  meals  pleas- 
ant, prompt,  yet  frugal.  He  likes  a  servant  such  as 
money  cannot  hire,  —  attentive,  affectionate,  spon- 
taneous, devoted,  and  trustworthy.  He  likes  very 
much  the  greatest  comfort  for  the  smallest  outlay, 
and  certainly  he  likes  to  be  loved.  His  love  runs 
in  the  current  of  his  likings,  and  is  speedily  indis- 
tinguishable from  them  ;  but  does  he  love  the 
woman  who  is  his  wife  ?  Would  he  say  to  her,  as 
poor  Tom  sadly  pleaded  in  "  A  Half-Life  and  Half 
a  Life,"  —  "  But  I  love  you  true,  and  if  you  can  only 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  203 

fancy  me,  I  '11  work  so  hard  that  you  '11  be  able  to 
keep  a  hired  girl  and  have  all  your  time  for  read  • 
ing  and  going  about  the  woods,  as  you  like  to  do  "  ? 
Would  he  say,  as  Von  Fink  said  to  Lenore,  —  "  You 
will  have  no  need  to  make  my  shirts,  and  if  you 
don't  like  account-keeping,  why  let  it  alone "  ? 
Listen,  for  it  is  good  to  know  that  a  man  has  lived 
and  written  who  did  not  look  for  his  domestic 
happiness  entirely  in  a  bread-pan  and  a  work- 
basket.  "Just  as  you  are,  Lenore, — resolute, 
bold,  a  little  passionate  devil,  — just  so  will  I  have 
you  remain.  We  have  been  companions  in  arms, 

and  so  we  shall  continue  to  be Were  you 

not  my  heart's  desire,  were  you  a  man,  I  should 
like  to  have  you  for  my  life's  companion ;  so, 
Lenore,  you  will  be  to  me  not  only  a  beloved 
wife,  but  a  courageous  friend,  the  confidante  of  all 
my  plans,  my  best  and  truest  comrade." 

Lenore  shook  her  head ;  "  I  ought  to  be  your 
housewife,"  sighed  she  (the  new  love  not  yet  hav- 
ing quite  purged  out  the  old  leaven). 

Fink  —  (but  no  matter  what  Fink  did.  We  are 
concerned  now  only  with  what  he  said.)  "  Be 
content,  sweetheart,"  said  he,  tenderly,  "  and 
make  up  your  mind  to  it.  We  have  been  to- 
gether in  a  fire  strong  enough  to  bring  love  to 
maturity,  and  we  know  each  other  thoroughly. 
Between  ourselves,  we  shall  have  many  a  storm 
in  our  house.  I  am  no  easy-going  companion,  at 
least  for  a  woman,  and  you  will  very  soon  find 


20-i  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

that  will  of  yours  again,  the  loss  of  which  you  are 
now  lamenting.  Be  at  rest,  darling,  you  shall  be 
as  headstrong  as  of  yore ;  you  need  not  distress 
yourself  on  that  account ;  so  you  may  prepare  for 
a  few  storms,  but  for  hearty  love  and  merry  life 
as  well."  Would  your  latter-day  lover  sign  such 
articles  of  agreement  on  his  marriage-day  ? 

Of  course  he  would  not.  The  shirts  and  the 
account-keeping  are  what  he  marries  for,  and  it 
would  be  a  manifest  absurdity  to  annul  the  con- 
clusion of  the  whole  matter.  It  is  not  a  question 
what  women  like  to  do ;  they  must  bake  and  brew 
and  make  and  mend,  whether  they  like  it  or  not. 
Men  do  not  marry  for  the  purpose  of  making 
women  happy,  but  to  make  themselves  happy. 
A  girl  looks  forward  in  her  marriage  to  what  she 
will  do  for  her  husband's  happiness.  A  man,  to 
what  he  will  enjoy  through  his  wife's  ministrations. 
"  He  needs  a  wife,"  say  the  good  women  who 
were  born  and  bred  in  these  opinions  and  do  not 
suspect  their  grossness. 

"  It  is  a  grand  good  match ;  I  don't  know  any- 
body that  needs  a  wife  more  than  he,"  said  one  of 
these  at  a  little  gathering,  speaking  of  a  recent 
marriage. 

o 

"Why?"  innocently  questioned  another  wo- 
man, who  was  supposed  to  have  somewhat  pecu- 
liar views  concerning  these  things. 

"  O,  you  never  want  anybody  to  marry ! " 
burst  out  a  chorus  of  voices,  —  which  was  surely 


1   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  205 

a  very  broad  inference  from  one  narrow  monosyl- 
lable. 

"  But  why  does  he  need  a  wife?  "  persisted  the 
questioner. 

"  For  sympathy  and  companionship,"  trium- 
phantly replied  the  first  woman,  knowing  that 
to  such  motives  her  interlocutor  could  take  no 
exception.  But  a  third  woman,  not  knowing  that 
anything  lay  behind  these  questions  and  answers, 
and  feeling  that  the  original  position  was  but 
feebly  maintained  by  such  unsubstantial  things  as 
sympathy  and  companionship,  being  also  a  near 
neighbor  of  the  person  in  question,  and  acquainted 
with  the  facts,  proceeded  to  strengthen  the  case 
by  adding,  "  Well,  he  was  all  alone,  and  he  wa'  n't 
very  well,  and  he  was  taken  sick  one  night  and 
could  n't  get  anybody  to  take  care  of  him." 

"But  why  not  hire  a  nurse ?  " 

"  Well  he  did,  and  she  was  very  good ;  but  she 
wouldn't  do  his  washing." 

o 

Only  wait  long  enough,  and  you  are  tolerably 
sure  to  get  the  truth  at  last.  It  was  not  sympathy 
and  companionship,  after  all,  that  the  man  wanted  : 
it  was  his  washing  ! 

You  see  a  most  unconscious,  but  irrefragable 
testimony  concerning  the  relations  which  are 
deemed  proper  between  a  man  and  his  wife  in  the 
very  common  use  of  the  phrase,  "  kind  husband." 
It  is  often  employed  in  praise  of  the  living  and  in 
eulogy  of  the  dead.  Compared  with  a  cruel  hus- 


206  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

band,  I  suppose  a  kind  husband  is  the  more  toler- 
able ;  but  compared  with  a  true  husband,  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  a  kind  husband.  You  are  kind 
to  animals,  to  beggars,  to  the  beetle  that  you  step 
out  of  your  path  to  avoid  treading  on.  One  may 
be  kind  to  people  who  have  no  claims  upon  him, 
but  he  is  not  kind  to  his  wife.  He  does  not  stand 
towards  her  in  any  relation  that  makes  kindness 
possible.  He  can  no  more  be  kind  to  his  wife  than 
he  can  be  to  himself.  His  wife  is  not  his  inferior, 
to  be  condescended  to,  but  his  treasure  to  be  cher- 
ished, his  friend  to  be  loved,  his  adviser  to  be  de- 
ferred to.  It  is  an  insult  to  a  woman  for  her  hus- 
band to  assume,  or  for  his  biographer  to  assume 
for  him,  that  he  could  be  kind  to  her.  Did  you 
over  hear  a  woman  praised  for  being  kind  to  her 
husband  ?  Did  you  ever  hear  an  obituary  declare 
a  woman  to  be  a  dutiful  daughter,  a  kind  wife,  a 
faithful  mother?  You  may  be  sure  the  phrase  is 
never  used  by  any  one  who  has  a  just  idea  of  what 
marriage  ought  to  be. 

If  love  cannot  outlast  a  few  years  of  life,  it  is 
idle  to  lament  that  it  is  so  surely  quenched  by 
death.  Absence  cannot  be  blamed  for  dissipating 
a  love  that  has  been  already  conquered  by  pres- 
ence. Nevertheless,  in  the  alacrity  with  which 
one  is  off  with  the  old  love  and  on  with  the  new 
may  be  read  the  shallowness,  the  flimsiness,  the 
earthliness,  of  that  which  passes  for  the  deepest, 
the  most  lasting,  and  the  most  divine.  Weary 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  207 

feet,  aching  brow,  and  disappointed  heart  are  at 
rest ;  or  a  vigorous  young  life  is  smitten  before  its 
heyday  was  clouded  ;  or  the  ripened  sheaf  is  gar- 
nered at  the  harvest-time  ;  but  no  proprieties,  no 
shock  of  premature  loss,  nor  the  "  late  remorse  of 
love,"  avails  to  make  the  impression  indelible. 
The  dead  past  miy  bury  its  dead  out  of  sight ; 
the  resurrection  may  adjust  its  own  perplexities  ; 
but  in  this  world  there  must  be  good  cheer.  The 
funeral  baked  meats  shall  coldly  furnish  forth  the 
marriage-table.  La  Heine  est  morte :  Vive  la 
JReine  !  And  when  the  loving  wife  is  gone  away 
from  the  heart  that  entertained  its  angel  unawares, 
people  will  tell  you  with  a  sober  face  how  "  beauti- 
fully he  bears  it !  "  "  perfectly  resigned !  "  "  Chris- 
tian calmness  !  "  "  kiss  the  rod  I  "  It  were  to  be 
wished  he  did  not  bear  it  quite  so  beautifully. 
When  a  wife  is  prematurely  torn  from  her  home, 
the  only  proper  attitude  for  her  husband  is  to  sit 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  It  is  fit  that  he  should 
be  stricken  to  the  dust.  It  is  not  becoming  for 
him  to  indulge  in  pious  reflections.  Ill-timed 
resignation  is  a  breach  of  morals.  He  is  not  to  be 
supposed  capable  of  a  lasting  fidelity,  but  he  may 
be  expected  to  be  temporarily  stunned  by  the  blow. 
It  would  be  more  decorous  for  him  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  powerful  and  wealthy  king  in  the 
fairy-tale,  who,  having  lost  his  wife,  was  so  in- 
consolable that  he  shut  himself  up  for  eight 
entire  days  in  a  little  room,  where  he  spent  his 


208  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

time   chiefly   in    knocking    his   head   against   the 
wall ! 

It  is  pitiful  to  see  a  strong  man  tottering  into  a 
wrong  path  from  sheer  lack  of  strength  to  walk  in 
the  right  one,  which  yet  he  does  not  lack  clear 
vision  to  see.  But  the  spectacle  may  be  profitable 
for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness.  Perhaps  no  more  faithful 
and  graphic  presentation  of  the  diplomacy  that  is 
employed  in  compassing  a  second  marriage  can  be 
given  than  is  found  in  the  proceedings  of  Perthes. 
When,  after  twenty-four  years  of  married  life,  his 
wife,  the  mother  of  his  ten  children,  left  him,  he 
repaired  to  Gotha  and  lived  three  years  in  the 
family  of  a  married  daughter.  In  an  early  stage 
of  his  bereavement  he  writes  of  his  loneliness,  and 
mentions,  but  almost  with  repugnance,  certainly 
with  no  apparent  intention  of  entering  it,  or  any 
intimation  of  a  possibility  of  receiving  joy  from  it, 
"  a  new  wedlock."  Nevertheless,  the  thought  is 
there.  His  daughter's  sister-in-law,  a  widow  of 
thirty  years,  and  mother  of  four  children,  lives  next 
door.  Presently  comes  down  his  mother-in-law  to 
pay  a  visit.  "  She  was  much  concerned  about 
Perthes's  situation,  and  one  day,  while  they  were 
walking  in  the  orangery,  expressed  herself  openly 
to  him.  She  told  him  that  he  was  no  more  a  master 
of  his  own  house,  that  soon  his  younger  children 
would  be  leaving  him,  and  that  his  strong  health 
gave  promise  of  a  long  life  yet  to  come ;  that  for 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  209 

him  solitude  was  not  good,  that  he  could  not  bear 
it,  and  consequently  that  he  ought  not  to  put  off 
choosing  a  companion  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life."  All  of  which  of  course  came  to  him  with 
the  freshness  of  entire  novelty.  But  immediately  we 
find  that  at  these  words  "  the  thought  of  Charlotte 
shot  like  lightning  through  his  soul."  So  it  seems 
that  he  had  already  outstripped  his  mother-in-law. 
She  dealt  only  in  generals,  but  he  had  advanced 
to  particulars.  However,  "  he  made  no  reply,  but 
he  had  a  hard  battle  to  fight  with  himself  from 
that  time  forth.  In  September  he  communicated 
to  his  mother-in-law  the  pros  and  cons  which 
agitated  him  so  much,  but  without  giving  her  to 
understand  that  it  was  no  longer  the  subject  of 
marriage  in  general,  but  of  one  marriage  in  partic- 
ular, which  now  disquieted  him.  After  stating 
the  outward  and  inward  circumstances,  which 
made  a  second  marriage  advisable  in  his  case,  he 

O  ' 

goes  on  to  say:  fc  I  am  quite  certain  that  Caroline 
foresaw,  from  her  knowledge  of  my  character  and 
temperament,  a  second  marriage  for  me,  and  I  am 
equally  certain  that  no  new  union  could  ever  dis- 
turb my  spirit's  abiding  union  with  her.  [It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  Charlotte  was  duly  made  acquainted 
with  this  fact.]  My  inner  life  is  filled  with  her 
memory,  and  will  be  so  till  my  latest  day ;  but  I 
must  own  that  this  is  possible  only  while  I  incor- 
porate in  thought  her  happy  soul,  and  think  of  her 
as  a  human  being,  still  sharing  my  earthly  ex- 


210  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

istence,  still  taking  interest  in  all  I  do ;  and  I  can- 
not disguise  from  myself,  while  viewing  her  under 
this  aspect,  that  my  dear  Caroline  would  prefer 
my  living  on  alone,  satisfied  with  her  memory. 
Again,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Holy  Scripture, 
although  permitting  a  second  marriage,  does  so  on 
account  of  the  hardness  of  our  hearts.  The  civil 
law  contains  no  prohibition  either,  and  yet  there 
has  always  existed  a  social  prejudice  against  such 
a  marriage,  and  youth,  whose  ideal  is  always  fresh 
and  fair,  and  women  who  are  always  young  in 
soul,  look  with  secret  disgust  upon  it.  I  know, 
too,  that  my  remaining  alone  would  be,  not  only 
with  reference  to  others,  but  in  itself,  the  worthier 
course ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  know  it  would 
be  so  in  reality  only  if  this  worthiness  were  not 
assumed  for  the  purpose  of  appearing  in  a  false 
light  to  myself,  to  other  men,  and  perhaps  even 
before  God,  or  for  the  purpose  of  cloaking  selfish- 
ness under  the  guise  of  fidelity  to  the  departed.' 
It  was  not,  however,  by  answering  this  question, 
nor  by  reflecting  upon  the  lawfulness  of  second 
marriages  in  general,  that  Perthes's  irresolution 
was  subdued,  but  by  an  increasing  attachment  to 
the  lady  whose  character  had  attracted  him.'' 

Very  honorable  appears  Perthes  here,  in  that  he 
argues  the  case  against  himself  with  fulness  and 
frankness,  revealing  to  himself  without  disguise 
the  weakness  under  which  he  finally  falls,  and 
conscious  all  the  while  that  it  is  a  weakness.  He 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  211 

does  not  attempt  to  hide  the  fact  that  Caroline 
would  have  preferred  to  live  alone  in  his  memory, 
and  he  falls  back  on  his  only  defensible  ground,  — 
the  hardness  of  his  heart.  Confession  is  forgive- 
ness. Let  him  pass  on  to  the  new  bride,  and  the 
second  family  of  eleven  children  that  will  spring 
up  around  them. 

But  there  are  men,  and  women  too,  —  there  are 
always  women  enough  to  echo  men's  opinions, — 
who  assume  that  the  spirit  of  the  departed  will  be 
delighted  in  her  heavenly  abode  to  know  that  the 
husband  decides  not  to  spend  his  life  in  solitude. 
Some  women  indeed  show  the  last  infirmity  of 
noble  minds  by  recommending  their  husbands  to 
take  a  second  wife,  although  it  seems  a  pity  to 
waste  one's  last  breath  in  bestowing  advice  which 
is  so  entirely  superfluous.  If  a  man  will  marry, 
let  him  marry,  but  let  no  patient  Griselda  "gin 
the  hous  to  dight"  for  the  "newe  lady."  If  a 
man  will  marry,  let  him  marry,  but  let  him  not 
offer  the  world  an  apology  for  the  act.  The 
apology  is  itself  an  accusation  ;  a  dishonor  to  both 
wives  instead  of  one.  He  knows  his  own  motives 
and  emotions.  If  they  are  upright  and  sufficient, 
it  is  no  matter  what  people  say  about  him  ;  he 
and  the  other  person  immediately  concerned  should 
be  so  self-satisfied  as  to  be  indifferent  to  outside 
comment.  If  they  are  not  upright  and  sufficient, 
attempting  to  make  them  appear  so  is  an  additional 
offence. 


212  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

I  have  said  on  this  subject  more  than  I  intended. 
I  meant  only  to  state  a  fact  clearly  enough  to  use 
it.  The  rest  "  whistled  itself."  Practically,  I  do 
not  know  that  I  have  any  quarrel  with  any  mar- 
riage that  is  real,  whether  it  come  after  the  first 
or  fiftieth  attempt.  Judging  from  general  obser- 
vation, I  should  suppose  that  most  people  might 
marry  half  a  dozen  times,  and  not  be  completely 
married  then. 

If,  as  Perthes  seems  to  have  thought,  all  this  is 
the  natural  course  of  events,  why  do  you  make  all 
womanly  honor  and  happiness  converge  in  the  one 
focus  of  marriage,  unless  like  a  Mussulman  you 
believe  that  on  such  condition  alone  can  women 
aspire  to  immortality  ?  But  even  then  it  would 
be  a  hard  bargain.  Immortality  is  dearly  bought 
at  the  price  of  immorality.  When  all  other  argu- 
ments fail,  and  you  would  mount  to  your  sublimest 
heights'  of  moral  elevation,  you  assure  a  woman 
that,  no  matter  how  lofty  her  life  may  be,  nor  how 
deep  her  satisfaction  may  seem,  if  she  fails  of  mar- 
riage she  fails  of  the  highest  development,  the 
deepest  experience,  the  greatest  benefit.  You  tell 
her  that  she  misses  somewhat  which  Heaven  itself 
cannot  supply.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  you  have 
previously  shown  that  marriage  is  but  a  temporary 
arrangement,  an  entirely  mundane  affair.  Love 
belongs  as  completely  to  this  world  as  houses  and 
barns,  —  is  in  fact  rather  supplementary  to  them, 
—  especially  to  the  house.  It  is  of  the  body,  and 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  213 

not  of  the  spirit ;  for  the  spirit  lives  forever,  but 
when  the  body  dies,  love  dies  also.  There  are 
no  claims  beyond  the  grave.  Nay,  it  does  not 
reach  to  the  grave.  The  delight,  the  spontaneity, 
the  satisfaction,  the  keenness,  all  die  out  before  the 
person  dies.  The  pulp  shrivels,  and  only  a  wrinkled 
skin  of  habit  remains.  But  a  woman  is  immortal. 
Can  a  mortal  love  satisfy  an  immortal  heart?  Is  it 
possible  that  an  undying  soul  must  find  its  strongest 
development  in  a  dying  love  ?  Does  a  creature 
of  the  skies  incur  an  irreparable  loss,  miss  an  ir- 
reclaimable jewel,  suffer  an  incurable  wound,  when 
it  loses,  or  misses,  or  suffers  anything  which  is  but 
of  the  earth  earthy  ?  Can  anything  finite  be  in- 
dispensable to  an  infinite  life  ? 

Again,  if  this  accession  of  toil,  and  this  diminu- 
tion and  decay  of  perceptible  love,  and  this  falling 
back  on  inward  love,  is  the  natural  course  of 
events,  why  not  say  so  in  the  beginning  ?  If  in- 
ward love  be  satisfactory  at  one  time,  why  not  at 
another,  as  well  before  marriage  as  after  ?  Why, 
when  a  man  has  once  made  and  received  affidavit 
of  love,  should  he  not  be  content,  and  neither  proffer 
nor  demand  manifestations  ?  Let  men  be  satisfied 
with  inward  love  during  courtship,  and  the  honey- 
moon, if  inward  love  is  so  all-sufficient.  Not  in 
the  least.  Men  are  not  one  tenth  part  so  capable 
of  inward  love  as  women,  — I  mean  of  an  inward 
love  without  outward  expression.  Their  inward 
love  becomes  outward  love  almost  as  soon  as  it 


214  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

becomes  love  at  all.  They  are  ten  times  more 
tumultuous,  more  demonstrative,  more  phenomenal, 
than  women.  They  are  as  impatient  as  children, 
and  more  unreasonable.  They  cannot,  or  they 
will  not,  brook  delay,  suspense,  refusal.  Women 
accept  all  these  drawbacks  as  a  part  of  the  pro- 
gramme, and  with  "  the  endurance  that  outwearies 
wrong,"  while  men  fiercely,  if  vainly,  kick  against 
the  pricks  and  talk  about  inward  love  ! 

And  if  the  true  object  of  marriage  be  to  help 
accumulate  or  frugally  to  manage  a  fortune,  to  cook 
dinners,  and  act  as  a  sewing-machine,  u  warranted 
not  to  ravel,"  say  that  frankly  also  in  the  beginning. 
Tell  women  plainly  what  you  want  of  them.  Do 
not  lure  them  into  your  service  under  false  pre- 
tences. Do  not  wait  till  they  are  irrevocably  fas- 
tened to  you,  and  then  lay  on  them  the  burdens  of 
labor  and  take  away  the  supports  of  love,  and  lecture 
them  into  acquiescence  through  the  newspapers. 
While  there  is  yet  left  to  them  a  freedom  of 
choice,  make  them  fully  acquainted  with  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  that  they  may  be  able  to 
choose  intelligently.  When  one  does  not  expect 
much,  one  is  not  disappointed  at  receiving  little. 
One  is  not  chilled  at  heart  by  snow  in  winter.  It 
is  walking  over  sunny  Southern  lands,  and  finding 
frosts  when  you  looked  for  flowers,  that  freezes  the 
fountains  of  life.  If  you  do  not  overwhelm  a 
woman  with  your  protestations,  if  you  do  not  lure 
her  to  your  heart  by  presenting  yourself  to  hei 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  215 

and  praying  her  to  be  to  you  friend,  comrade,  and 
lover,  when  what  you  really  want  is  cook,  laun- 
dress, and  housekeeper,  she  will  at  least  know  what 
is  before  her.  But  do  not  swear  to  her  eternal 
fidelity,  knowing  that,  as  soon  as  you  thoroughly 
understand  each  other,  there  will  be  an  end  of  all 
little  tendernesses  of  expression.  Do  not  span  her 
with  a  rainbow,  and  spread  diamond-dust  beneath 
her  feet,  knowing  all  the  while  that  a  very  little 
time  will  bring  for  the  one  but  a  cold,  penetrat- 
ing rain,  and  will  change  the  other  into  coarse, 
sharp  pebbles  that  shall  bruise  her  tender  feet. 
Change  the  formula  of  your  marriage  vows,  and 
instead  of  promising  to  love,  honor,  and  cherish 
till  death  you  do  part,  promise  to  do  it  only  till 
you  understand  her  thoroughly,  and  then  to  make 
the  best  of  the  bargain  ! 

If  we  were  forced  to  believe  that  these  right- 
hand  fallings-off  and  left-hand  defections  were  in- 
deed the  legitimate  workings  of  the  human  heart, 
the  natural  history  of  mankind,  then  should  we  be 
forced  to  believe  that  this  world  is  a  .stupendous 
failure,  and  the  sooner  it  is  burned  up  the  better. 
We  should  be  forced  to  believe  in  the  thorough 
degradation  and  destructibility  of  both  mind  and 
matter.  For  the  essence  of  value  is  durability. 
A  soap-bubble  is  as  beautiful  as  a  pearl  and  as  bril- 
liant as  a  diamond  ;  for  what  is  called  practical 
service,  for  warmth,  or  shelter,  or  sustenance,  one 
is  quite  as  good  as  another.  What  mskes  their 


216  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

different  worth  is,  that  the  soap-bubble  yields  up 
its  lovely  life  to  the  first  molecule  that  sails 
through  the  air  to  solicit  it,  while  the  gems  out- 
last a  thousand  years.  But  if  life  is  a  soap- 
bubble,  and  not  a  pearl,  shall  a  woman  sell  all 
that  she  has  and  buy  it  ?  What  advantageth 
the  possession  of  a  happiness  which  melts  in  the 
grasp,  —  which  is  satisfactory  only  for  the  short 
time  that  it  is  novel  ?  Who  would  care  to  enter 
a  path  of  roses,  knowing  that  a  few  steps  will  take 
him  into  a  vast  and  barren  desert,  whence  escape 
is  impossible  ?  If  this  is  real  life,  let  us  rather 
pitch  our  tents  in  fairy-land;  for  then,  when  the 
Prince  is  at  last  restored  to  his  true  manly  form 
and  his  rightful  throne,  and  united  to  the  beauti- 
ful, constant  Princess,  we  invariably  find,  not  only 
that  their  happiness  was  quite  inexpressible,  but 
it  lasted  to  the  end  of  their  lives. 

If  we  are  to  believe  such  propositions,  we  might 
as  well  call  ourselves  infidels,  and  have  done  with 
it.  To  deny  the  existence  of  love  takes  away  no 
more  hope,  from  humanity  than  to  deny  the  im- 
mortality of  love.  It  is  no  worse  to  take  away  life 
from  the  soul  than  to  give  it  a  life  which  is  but  a 
protracted  death.  To  make  a  distinction  between 
earthly  and  heavenly  love  hardly  affects  the  case. 
The  direction  of  love  is  not  love.  All  love  is 
heavenly,  —  "  bright  effluence  of  bright  essence 
increate."  If  a  man  gives  himself  to  the  pursuit  of 
unworthy  objects,  or  to  the  indulgence  of  unhal- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  217 

pleasures,  a  pure  name  need  not  be  dragged 
down  into  the  mire  that  his  error  may  have  a 
seemly  christening.  If  that  is  love  which  fades 
out  long  before  its  object ;  if,  when  its  object  dis- 
appears behind  the  veil  love  rightly  returns  to 
earth,  then  are  we  of  all  creatures  most  miserable ; 
for  we  abnegate  a  future.  We  thought  it  had 
been  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel ;  but 
thou  shalt  return  unto  the  ground,  for  out  of  it 
wast  thou  taken.  Dust  art  thou,  O  love,  and  unto 
dust  shalt  thou  return. 

Nay,  let  us  have  falsehood  rather  than  truth,  if 
this  be  truth.  But  this  cannot  be  truth.  Love 
sets  up  his  ladder  on  the  earth,  but  the  top  of  it 
reaches  unto  heaven,  and  if  the  eye  be  clear  and 
the  heart  pure,  the  angels  of  God  shall  be  seen 
ascending  and  descending  on  it.  The  fashion  of 
this  world  passeth  away, 

"  But  love  strikes  one  hour,  —  LOVE." 

Hear  a  woman's  voice  mingling  now  with 
angels'  voices,  —  the  voice  of  a  woman  whose 
pathway  to  the  skies  was  a  line  of  light  shining 
still  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 

"  I  classed,  appraising  once, 
Earth's  lamentable  sounds  :  the  welladay, 

The  jarring  yea  and  nay, 
The  fall  of  kisses  on  unanswering  clay, 
The  sobbed  farewell,  the  welcome  mournfuller» 

But  all  did  leaven  the  air 
10 


218  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

With  a  less  bitter  leaven  of  sure  despair 
Than  these  words,  —  *  I  loved  ONCE/ 

"  And  who  saith,  '  I  loved  ONCE  *  ? 
Not  angels,  whose  clear  eyes  love,  love  foresee, 

Love  through  eternity, 
Who  by  To  Love  do  apprehend  To  Be. 
Not  God,  called  LOVE,  his  noble  crown-name,  casting 

A  light  too  broad  for  blasting  ! 
The  great  God,  changing  not  from  everlasting, 

Saith  never,  '  I  loved  ONCE.' 

"  Nor  ever  the  '  Loved  ONCE  ' 
Dost  THOU  say,  Victim-Christ,  misprised  friend  ! 

The  cross  and  curse  may  rend ; 
But,  having  loved,  Thou  lovest  to  the  end ! 
It  is  man's  saying,  —  man's.     Too  weak  to  move 

One  sphered  star  above, 
Man  desecrates  the  eternal  God-word  Love 

With  his  No  More  and  Once. 

"  Say  never,  ye  loved  ONCE  ! 
God  is  too  near  above,  the  grave  below, 

And  all  our  moments  go 
Too  quickly  past  our  souls,  for  saying  so. 
The  mysteries  of  life  and  death  avenge 

Affections  light  of  range  : 
There  comes  no  change  to  justify  that  change 

Whatever  comes,  —  loved  ONCE  !  " 


XII. 


,  by  reason  of  their  hardness  of 
heart,  gravitate  towards  the  material 
theory,  and  women,  by  reason  of 
their  softness  of  heart,  lower  to  the 
same  level.  Men  defy  heaven  and  earth  to 
compass  self-indulgence,  and  women  defy  the 
divine  law  written  in  their  hearts  rather  than 
thwart  men.  Instead  of  setting  their  faces  like 
a  flint  against  this  tendency,  they  accept  it,  excuse 
it,  try  to  think  it  inevitable,  a  matter  of  organiza- 
tion, and  make  the  best  of  it.  They  will  counsel 
young  girls  not  to  reckon  upon  receiving  as  much 
love  as  they  give !  Fatal  advice  !  Disastrous 
generalization  !  Yet  neither  unnatural  nor  un- 
kind, for  it  is  the  fruit  of  a  sad  and  wide  experience. 
They  would  gladly  spare  fresh  souls  the  apples  of 
Sodom,  whose  fair  seeming  bewrayed  themselves ; 
but  they  should  teach  them  to  avoid  disappoint- 
ment, not  by  counting  upon  bitterness,  but  by 
rejecting  apples  of  Sodom  altogether,  and  receiv- 
ing only  such  fruit  as  cheers  the  heart  of  God  as 


220  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

well  as  man.  Why  shall  not  women  receive  as 
much  love  as  they  give  ?  Is  man  less  capable  of 
loving  than  woman  ?  Where  in  nature  or  in  reve- 
lation is  the  warrant  for  such  an  hypothesis  ?  When 
He  commands,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,"  is  he 
not  speaking  to  men  as  well  as  women  ?  and  are  a 
man's  heart,  soul,  mind,  and  strength  less  than  a 
woman's  ?  Are  not  husbands  commanded  to  love 
their  wives  even  as  Christ  loved  the  Church  ?  and 
did  he  love  the  Church  less  than  the  Church  loved 
him  ?  Is  not  every  man  commanded  in  particular 
to  love  his  wife  even  as  himself,  - —  to  love  his  wife  as 
his  own  body  ?  and  is  a  man's  love  to  himself,  his 
love  to  his  own  body,  a  feeble  and  untrustworthy 
sentiment  ?  You  find  in  the  Bible  no  letting  a  man 
off  from  his  duties  of  love  ;  no  letting  him  down. 
Old-fashioned  as  it  is,  written  for  a  state  of  society 
far  different  from  ours,  often  brought  forward  to 
prop  up  old  wrongs  and  bluff  off  newly-found 
rights,  the  Bible  is  still  the  very  storehouse  of  re- 
forms. It  contains  the  germs  not  only  of  spiritual 
life,  but  of  spiritual  living.  Glows  on  its  pages 
the  morning-red  which  has  scarcely  yet  gilded  the 
world. 

Women  must  not  expect  to  receive  as  much 
love  as  they  give  !  It  is  inviting  men  to  esteem 
lightly  what  should  be  a  priceless  possession.  It 
b  not  waiting  for  them  to  drag  down  the  banner 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  221 

to  the  dust ;  it  is  making  haste  to  trail  it  for  them 
with  malice  aforethought.  Men  now  are  not  too 
constant,  too  devoted  to  the  higher  aims  of  life; 
but  let  constancy  and  devotion  not  be  expected 
of  them,  and  in  what  seven-league  boots  will  they 
stride  down  the  broad  road !  It  is  doing  them 
but  left-handed  service  thus  to  throw  the  door 
open  to  weakness  and  wavering  concerning  higher 
interests,  and  a  blind  devotion  to  the  god  of  this 
world,  To  assume  that  their  tone  may  be  low,  is 
to  lower  their  tone.  Men  are  less  good  than  they 
would  be  if  goodness  were  demanded  of  them. 
The  current  is  turbid  and  unwholesome,  because  it 
is  not  strictly  required  to  be  pure  and  clear.  The 
way  for  women  to  be  truly  serviceable  to  men,  is 
to  be  themselves  exacting. 

"  Exacting  "  ?  What  word  is  that  ?  An  ex- 
acting woman  ?  An  exacting  wife  ?  u  Hail ! 
Horrors,  hail !  "  The  unlovely  being  has  existed, 
and  within  the  memory  of  men  still  living,  but  it 
has  always  been  looked  upon  as  a  monster, 

"  Whom  none  could  love,  whom  none  could  thank. 
Creation's  blot,  creation's  blank  ! " 

We  have  fallen  on  evil  times  indeed  if  such  a 
being  is  to  be  held  up  for  approval  and  imita- 
tion. 

But  the  character  of  exaction  depends  somewhat 
on  the  nature  of  the  thing  exacted.  To  exact 
from  a  man  that  to  which  you  have  a  right,  and 


222  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

wliicli  it  is  his  own  truest  interest  to  bestow,  is 
neither  unchristian  nor  unamiable.  One  may  and 
should  grant  large  room  for  the  play  of  tastes  ;  for 
differences  of  organization,  opinion,  habit,  educa- 
tion ;  but  a  catholicity  which  admits  to  its  presence 
anything  that  defileth  is  no  fruit  of  that  tree  whose 
leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  The 
gardener  who  is  tolerant  of  weeds  and  not  un- 
tender  towards  misshapen,  or  dwarfed,  or  other- 
wise imperfect  flowers  will  have  but  a  sorry  show 
for  the  eyes  of  the  master.  Such  latitude  is  a 
source  of  deterioration.  It  is  the  kindness  which 
kills.  Each  sex  should  be  to  the  other  an  incite- 
ment to  lofty  aims.  Each  should  stand  on  its  own 
mountain-height  and  call  to  the  other  through 
clear,  bright  air ;  but  such  sufferance  only  draws 
both  down  into  the  damp,  unwholesome  valley- 
lands  where  lurk  fever  and  pestilence.  A  woman 
cannot  with  impunity  open  her  doors  to  unworthy 
guests.  There  may  be  bowing  and  smiling,  and 
never-ending  smooth  speech,  but  in  the  end,  and 
long  before  the  end,  they  shall  draw  their  swords 
against  the  beauty  of  her  wisdom  and  shall  defile 
her  brightness.  A  man  may  go  all  lengths  in  pur- 
suit of  his  own  selfish  comfort,  but  he  does  not  the 
less  respect  those  who  hold  themselves  above  it, 
and  if  women,  who  should  be  pure  and  purifying, 
mar  the  spotlessness  of  a  divine  sanctity  and  lessen 
the  claims  of  an  imperial  dignity,  thinking  thereby 
to  be  meeter  for  profane  approach,  they  work  a 


4   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  223 

work  whose  evil  strikes  its  roots  into  the  inmost  life 
of  society.  From  mistaken  kindness  woman  may 
weave  a  narrow  garland,  but  there  is  lost  a  glory 
from  the  hand  that  bears  and  the  brow  that  wears 
it.  If  the  queen  is  content  to  spend  her  life  in 
the  kitchen  over  bread  and  honey,  and  if  she  is 
satisfied  that  the  king  spend  his  in  the  parlor 
counting  out  his  money,  neither  king  nor  queen 
will  receive  that  homage  or  command  that  alle- 
giance which  is  the  rightful  royal  prerogative. 

There  is  a  foolish  subservience,  an  ostentatious 
and  superficial  chivalry,  an  undignified  and  slavish 
deference  to  whims  which  silly  women  demand 
and  sillier  men  grant.  Yet  even  this  is  not  so 
much  the  fault  of  the  weak  women  as  of  the  strong 
men,  who  surround  women  with  the  atmosphere 
which  naturally  creates  such  weakness.  But  wo- 
men have  a  right,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  expect,  to 
claim,  to  exact  if  you  please,  a  constancy,  spiritu- 
ality, devotion,  as  great  as  their  own.  Where  God 
makes  no  distinction  of  sex  in  his  demands  upon 
mankind,  His  creatures  should  not  make  distinc- 
tions. "  Men  are  different  from  women,"  is  tli3 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  at  female  debating- 
societies,  and  the  all-sufficient  excuse  for  every 
short-coming  or  over-coming;  but  the  Apostles 
and  Prophets  find  therein  no  warrant  for  a  vio- 
lation of  moral  law,  no  guaranty  for  immunity 
from  punishment,  no  escape  from  the  obligations 
to  unselfish  and  righteous  living.  Nowhere  does 


224  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

the  Saviour  of  the  world  proclaim  to  men  a 
liberty  in  selfishness  or  sin.  His  kingdom  will 
never  come,  nor  his  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven,  so  long  as  men  are  permitted  to 
take  out  indulgences.  If  they  do  it  ignorantly,  not 
knowing  the  true  character  and  claims  of  woman- 
hood, nor  consequently  of  manhood,  they  should 
be  taught.  If  they  think  a  wife's  chief  duty  is  to 
economize  her  husband's  fortunes,  or  to  minister 
to  his  physical  comforts,  they  should  be  speedily 
freed  from  the  illusion.  If  they  suppose  knowl- 
edge to  be  ill-adapted  to  the  female  constitution, 
and  harmless  only  when  administered  homoeopathi- 
cally,  they  should  be  quietly  undeceived.  If  they 
have  been  so  trained  that  marriage  is  to  them  but 
unholy  ground  whereon  is  found  no  place  for 
modesty,  chastity,  delicacy,  reverence,  how  shall 
they  ever  unlearn  the  bad  lesson  but  through  pure 
womanly  teaching  ? 

But  women  fear  to  take  this  attitude.  There 
are  many  indeed  who  have  become  so  demoralized 
that  they  do  not  know  there  is  any  such  attitude 
to  take  ;  but  there  are  others  who  do  see  it,  and 
shrink  from  assuming  it.  Women  whose  courage 
and  fortitude  are  indescribable,  who  will  brave 
pain  and  fatigue  and  all  definite  physical  obstacles 
in  their  path,  will  bow  down  their  heads  like  a  bul- 
rush with  fear  of  that  indefinable  thing  which  may 
be  called  social  disapprobation.  Through  coward- 
ice, they  are  traitors  to  their  own  sex,  and  impedi- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  225 

ments  to  the  other.  One  cannot  find  it  in  his 
heart  to  blame  them  harshly.  The  weakness  has  so 
many  palliations,  it  is  so  natural  a  growth  of  their 
wickedly  arranged  circumstances,  as  to  disarm  re- 
buke and  move  scarcely  more  than  pity  ;  but  it  is 
none  the  less  a  fact,  lamentable  and  disastrous. 
Women  who  know  and  lament  the  erroneous  no- 
tions and  the  guilty  actions  of  men  concerning  wo- 
man, and  the  culpable  relations  of  men  to  women, 
will  endeavor  to  hold  back  the  opinions  of  a  woman 
when  they  go  against  the  current.  They  will  admit 
the  force  of  all  her  objections,  the  justice  of  every 
remonstrance,  but  will  assure  her  that  opposition 
trill  be  of  no  avail.  She  will  accomplish  nothing, 
ihit  —  and  here  lies  the  real  bugbear  —  but  she 
will  make  men  almost  afraid  of  her  ! 

I  would  that  men  were  not  only  almost,  but  al- 
together afraid  of  every  woman  !  I  would  that 
men  should  hold  woman  in  such  knightly  fear  that 
they  should  never  dare  to  approach  her,  matron  or 
maid,  save  with  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart ; 
never  dare  to  lift  up  their  souls  to  vanity  nor 
swear  deceitfully  ;  never  dare  to  insult  her  pres- 
ence with  words  of  flattery,  insincerity,  coarseness, 
sensuality,  mercenary  self-seeking,  or  any  other 
form  of  dishonor.  I  would  that  woman  were  her- 
self so  noble  and  wise,  her  approbation  so  unques- 
tionably the  reward  of  merit,  that  a  man  should 
not  dare  to  think  ignobly  lest  his  ignoble  thought 
flower  into  word  or  act  before  her  eyes ;  should 


226  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

not  wish  to  think  ignobly,  since  it  removed  him  to 
such  a  distance  from  her,  and  wrought  in  him  so 
sad  an  unlikeness  to  her ;  should  not  be  able  to 
think  ignobly,  being  interpenetrated  with  the  ce- 
lestial fragrance  which  is  her  native  air.  I  would 
have  the  heathen  cloud-divinity  which  inwraps  her 
with  a  factitious  light,  only  to  hide  her  real  fea- 
tures from  mortal  gaze,  torn  utterly  away,  that  men 
may  see  in  her  the  fullest  presentation  possible  to 
earth  of  the  god-like  in  humanity.  So  powerfully 
does  the  Most  High  stand  ready  to  work  in  her 
to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure,  that  she 
may  be  to  man  a  living  revelation,  Emanuel,  God 
with  us. 

We  ought  to  stand  in  awe  of  one  another.  :  We 
do  not  sufficiently  respect  personality.  Every 
soul  comes  fresh  from  the  creative  hand  and  bears 
its  own  divine  stamp.  We  should  not  go  thought- 
lessly into  its  presence.  We  should  not  wantonly 
violate  its  holiness.  Even  the  body,  is  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made,  and  well  may  be,  for  it  is 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  if  the  temple  is 
sacred,  how  much  more  that  holy  thing  which  the 
temple  enshrines,  —  the  unseen,  incomprehensible, 
infinite  soul,  the  essential  spirit,  the  holy  ghost. 
Who  that  cherishes  the  divine  visitant  in  his  own 
heart  but  must  be  amazed  at  the  reckless  irrever- 
ence with  which  we  assail  each  other.  It  is  not 
the  smile,  the  chance  word,  the  pleasant  or  even 
the  hostile  rencounter  in  the  outer  courts  ;  it  is  that 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  227 

we  Jo  not  respect  each  other's  silences.  We  do  not 
scruple  to  pry  into  the  arcana.  The  hermit's  sanc- 
tuary may  lie  in  the  huntsman's  track,  but  he  will 
have  his  pleasure  though  hermit  and  sanctuary 
were  in  the  third  heaven.  We  do  not  accept 
what  is  given  with  gladness  and  singleness  of 
heart ;  we  stretch  out  wanton  hands  to  pull  aside 
the  curtain  and  reveal  to  the  garish  day  what 
should  be  suffered  to  repose  in  the  twilight  of 
inner  chambers. 

When  the  prudent  adviser,  the  practical  man  or 
woman,  counsels,  "  Do  not  demand  so  much  from 
your  friends,  —  they  won't  stand  it,"  —  am  I  to  in- 
fer that  friendship  is  a  mercenary  matter,  a  thing 
of  compromise  and  barter  ?  Shall  I  fence  in  my 
acts,  wrords,  thoughts,  that  I  may  secure  something 
whose  sole  value,  whose  sole  existence,  indeed,  lies 
in  its  spontaneity  ?  Shall  I  haggle  for  incense  ? 
Am  I  loved  for  what  I  do,  what  I  say,  what  I 
think,  and  not  for  what  I  am  ?  Why,  this  is  not 
love.  I  am  myself,  first  of  all,  not  Launcelot  nor 
another.  He  who  loves  me  can  but  wrish  me  to  be 
this  in  fullest  measure.  I  will  live  iny  life.  I  will 
go  whithersoever  the  spirit  leads.  He  who  loves 
me  will  rejoice  in  this  and  give  me  all  furtherance. 
I  demand  all  things  —  in  you.  I  demand  noth- 
ing—  from  you.  "  Will  not  stand  it  "  ?  If  you 
can  hate  me,  hate  me.  If  you  can  refrain  from 
loving,  love  not.  I  can  dispense  with  your  regard, 
but  there  is  something  indispensable.  You  shall 


228  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

love  me  because  you  cannot  help  it,  or  you  shall 
love  me  not  at  all.  If  I  cannot  compel  affec- 
tion in  the  teeth  of  all  conflicting  opinion,  I  re- 
nounce it  altogether.  If  the  aroma  of  character  is 
not  strong  enough  to  overpower  with  its  sweetness 
all  unfragrant  exhalations  of  opinion,  it  is  a  matter 
of  but  small  account. 

If  two  people  should  design  simply  to  club  to- 
gether, to  take  their  meals  at  the  same  table  and 
dwell  under  the  same  roof,  it  would  be  a  thing  to 
be  carefully  considered ;  but  when  the  question  is, 
not  of  association  alone,  but  of  absolute  oneness, 
not  of  similarity  of  tastes  or  habits,  but  of  an  in- 
most and  all-prevailing  sympathy,  it  becomes  us 
to  be  wary.  Mere  mechanical  junction  is  easy 
of  accomplishment,  but  a  chemical  combination 
demands  fine  analysis  and  the  most  careful  adjust- 
ment. It  needs  not  that  a  globe  of  fire  should 
come  raging  through  the  skies  to  set  our  world 
ablaze  ;  a  very  slight  change  in  the  atmosphere 
which  embraces  it,  a  little  less  of  one  ingredient,  a 
little  more  of  another,  and  the  earth  and  the  works 
that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up.  Yet  the 
delicacy  of  matter  is  but  a  faint  type  of  the  del- 
icacy of  mind.  He  who  would  pass  within  the 
veil  to  commune  with  the  soul  between  the  cher- 
ubim must  assume  holy  garments.  If  the  trouble 
seem  to  him  too  great,  let  him  be  content  to  tarry 
without.  Uzzah  put  forth  an  incautious  hand  and 
touched  the  ark  of  God  unbidden,  and  the  anger 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  229 

of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  him,  and  there  he 
died  by  the  ark  of  God.  Now,  as  then,  if  any  man 
defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy  ; 
for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which  temple  ye 
are. 

Yet  the  general  opinion  seems  to  be  that  human 
beings  are  made  by  machinery  like  Waltham 
watches,  and  will  fit  perfectly  when  brought  to- 
gether at  random,  as  the  different  parts  taken  in- 
discriminately from  a  heap  of  similar  parts  will  fit 
and  form  a  watch.  Juxtaposition  is  the  only  neces- 
sary preliminary  to  harmony.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  true  not  only  of  prodigies,  but  of  every  member 
of  the  race  that  nature  made  him  and  then  broke 
the  mould.  Every  person  is  a  prodigy.  So  great, 
so  radical,  so  out-spreading,  are  the  differences 
between  individuals,  that  the  wonder  is,  not  that 
they  quarrel  so  much,  but  that  they  are  ever  peace- 
ful when  brought  together.  The  wonder  is  that 
so  many  fierce  antagonisms  can  be  soothed  even 
into  an  outward  quiet.  Looking  at  it  as  mechan- 
ism, seeing  how  diverse,  aggressive,  and  impatient 
are  the  qualities  of  man,  and  how  peculiarly  are 
his  circumstances  adapted  to  foster  his  peculiarities, 
one  would  say  that  the  only  security  was  in  soli- 
tude. Indeed,  young  people  are  very  apt  to  think 
so.  They  combine  in  an  ideal  all  the  charms 
which  attract,  and  exclude  from  it  all  the  disagree- 
able traits  which  repel  them,  and  see  reality  fall 
so  far  short  of  their  imaginary  standard  that  they 


230  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

fully  believe  they  shall  never  find  the  true  Prince. 
And  they  never  would,  but  for  an  inward,  inex- 
plicable suffusion  of  the  Divine  essence,  whose 
source  and  action  lie  beyond  knowledge  or  control, 
which  works  without  instigation,  but  is  all-powerful 
to  create  or  annihilate.  This,  however,  which  is 
the  sole  explanation  of  the  phenomenon,  which  is 
the  sole  conciliator  between  opposing  forces,  is 
generally  left  out  of  view.  People  scarcely  seem  to 
be  conscious  that  there  is  any  phenomenon.  They 
philosophize  sagaciously  upon  the  singular  skill 
which  swings  unnumbered  worlds  in  space,  and 
spins  them  on  in  never-ending  cycle,  yet  marks 
out  their  paths  so  wisely  that  world  sweeps  clear 
of  world  and  never  a  collision  crushes  one  to  ruin. 
But  full  as  the  universe  is  of  stars,  the  nearest  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  miles  apart ;  while  the 
intellectual,  nervous  worlds  that  are  set  going  on 
the  surface  of  our  earth  are  close  together.  Half 
a  dozen  of  them  are  placed  as  it  were  shoulder  to 
shoulder.  Their  zigzag;  orbits  intersect  each  other 

o      o 

a  hundred  times  a  day.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
there  is  hard  abrasion,  that  surfaces  are  seamed 
and  furrowed,  and  that  sometimes  a  crash  startles 
us  ?  Is  not  the  wonder  rather  that  crashes  are 
not  the  order  of  the  day,  that  the  seams  are  seams 
and  not  cracks  through  the  whole  crust,  and  that 
the  largest  result  of  abrasion  is  smoothness  and 
evenness  and  polish  ? 

Yet,  utterly  unmindful  of  the  fitness  of  things, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  231 

people  will  wonder  why  a  man  and  a  woman  who 
are  thrown  occasionally  together  do  not  —  what  ? 
Attack  each  other  in  an  outburst  of  impatience  at 
stupidity  and  cross-purposes  ?  Not  at  all,  but 
"  strike  up  a  match."  That  is,  put  themselves 
into  relations  which  shall  turn  an  association  whose 
redeeming  feature  is  that  it  is  casual  and  under 
control  into  an  association  that  is  constant  and  ir- 
revocable !  Masculine  backwardness  is  not  per- 
haps considered  remarkable,  as  indeed  there  is 
very  little  of  it  to  be  remarked,  but  the  utmost 
surprise  is  expressed  on  those  rare  occasions  in 
which  women  are  supposed  to  have  declined  a 
"  desirable  offer."  That  a  woman  should  not 
avail  herself  of  an  opportunity  to  become  the  wife 
of  a  man  who  is  well-educated,  well-mannered, 
"  well-off,"  seems  to  be  an  inexplicable  fact.  He 
is  her  equal  in  fortune,  position,  character.  Com- 
mentators "  cannot  see  any  reason  why  she  should 
not  marry  him."  But  is  there  any  reason  why  she 
should  marry  him  ?  The  burden  of  proof  lies  upon 
motion,  not  rest;  upon  him  who  changes,  not  upon 
him  who  retains  a  position.  All  these  things 
which  are  called  inducements  are  no  more  than 
so  many  sticks  and  stones  ;  you  might  just  as 
well  repeat  the  a  b  c,  and  call  that  inducement. 
The  matters  which  bear  on  such  conclusions  are 
of  an  entirely  different  nature.  Your  "  induce- 
ments "  may  come  in  by  and  by,  when  the  main 
point  is  settled,  to  modify  outward  acts,  but  till 


232  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

the  Divine  Spirit  moves,  they  are  without  form 
and  void. 

Nor  are  well-wishers  always  so  careful  as  to  take 
the  man  himself  into  the  account.  If  surroundings 
are  favorable,  if  to  a  by-stander  there  seems  to  be 
a  sort  of  house-and-barn  adaptation,  it  is  enough. 
House  and  barn  should  at  once  join  roof  and  be- 
come one  edifice.  It  is  of  no  importance  that  this 
holds  stalls  for  horned  oxen,  and  that  entertain- 
ment for  angels  ;  that  the  one  is  informed  with 
spiritual  life  and  the  other  filled  with  hay :  hay 
and  heaven  are  all  one  to  many  eyes.  "  Why 
does  she  not  marry  him  ?  "  Why  ?  Simply  be- 
cause there  is  not  enough  of  him,  or  what  there 
is  is  not  of  the  right  stuff.  If  he  were  twenty 
instead  of  one,  she  might  dare  promise  to  honor 
him,  might  dare  hope  to  respect  him.  If  he  had 
just  twenty  times  as  much  of  being,  or  if  his 
amplitude  could  be  converted  into  fineness,  he 
might  meet  her  on  equal  ground ;  but  being  only 
one  and  such  a  one,  she  is  in  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority, and  it  is  not  republican  that  majorities 
should  yield  to  minorities.  He  may  be,  as  you 
say,  "just  as  good  as  she,"  but  not  good  for 
her. 

These  views  appear  in  the  (perhaps  apocryphal) 
stories  occasionally  told  of  renowned  personages. 
A  poor  man  or  an  obscure  man  proposes  to  a 
young  woman  whose  father  is  rich,  and  he  is  re- 
fused. The  poor  and  obscure  man  becomes  pres- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  233 

ently  a  great  banker,  a  governor,  president  of  a 
college,  or  recovers  lost  counties,  or  dukedoms  in 
Europe.  I  have  .even  heard  the  story  repeated 
of  the  Emperor  of  the  French  and  a  New 
York  young  woman.  Moral :  Is  not  the  woman 
sorry  now  that  she  did  not  marry  the  poor  man  ? 
Probably  not.  Certainly  not  if  she  belongs  to 
the  true  type.  What  have  all  these  changes  to  do 
with  the  matter  ?  Is  he  any  more  comfortable  to 
live  with  because  he  is  a  governor  ?  Is  he  any 
more  adapted  to  her  because  he  is  a  duke  ?  It  is 
barely  possible  that  she  was  mistaken  ;  but  if  she 
were,  she  is  probably  ignorant  of  it  herself,  His 
present  state  does  not  indicate  a  mistake.  Only  a 
close  companionship  would  be  likely  to  discover  it. 
The  qualities  which  make  domestic  content  are 
not  usually  revealed  by  ever  so  brilliant  public 
success.  If  they  originally  existed,  they  are  little 
likely  to  have  been  developed.  As  business  af- 
fairs are  usually  conducted,  they  are  more  likely  to 
drown  out  home  happiness  than  to  create  it.  But 
all  this  is  irrelevant.  Nothing  is  really  meant  to 
which  this  is  an  answer.  It  is  only  the  manifesta- 
tion of  a  blindness  to  what  constitutes  attraction. 
The  man  has  discovered  outside  advantages,  and 
it  is  assumed  that  that  is  enough.  She  of  course 
refused  him  because  she  had  not  sagacity  enough 
to  discern  the  shadow  of  his  coming  greatness. 
It  does  not  seem  to  be  suspected  that  she  could 
have  refused  him  because  he  did  not  suit  her  ! 


234  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

What  difference  does  it  make  whether  a  man 
is  a  clown  or  a  king,  if  you  do  not  like  him  ?  Is 
a  great  judge  necessarily  an  agreeable  person  to 
think  of?  Is  a  world-renowned  financier  ne- 
cessarily the  person  who  will  have  most  power 
to  draw  out  what  is  good  and  gracious  in  a  wo- 
man ?  Girls  naturally  give  their  loyalty  to  men, 
not  to  crowns,  or  ermine.  The  lovely  Fiorina 
was  as  fond  of  Kino;  Charming,  when  he  came 

o  o7 

to  her  in  the  shape  of  a  Bluebird,  as  when  he  ap- 
peared at  court  in  royal  majesty.  Wicked  out- 
side opinion,  it  is  true,  warps  their  judgment  in 
a  very  great  degree,  and  destroys  their  freedom  ; 
but  of  their  own  nature,  in  their  inmost  hearts, 
they  are  true ;  and  when  they  have  indepen- 
dence enough  to  manifest  their  truth  in  these 
palpable  acts,  they  may  be  safely  set  down  as 
true.  They  acted  from  sincerity  and  dignity,  not 
from  mercenary  short-sightedness.  They  acted 
from  the  most  simple  and  natural  causes,  and  what 
have  they  to  regret  ?  It  is  much  better  to  be  the 
wife  of  an  honest  and  respectable  American  cit- 
izen than  to  be  Empress  of  the  French,  —  even 
looking  at  it  in  a  solely  worldly  point  of  view. 
When  we  add  to  this  that  one  loves  the  Ameri- 
can citizen,  and  does  not  love  the  French  Em- 
peror, the  case  may  as  well  be  ruled  out  of 
court  at  once.  There  is  no  ground  for  any  fur- 
ther proceedings. 

Men  and  women  act  upon  these  views  too  much, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  235 

as  well  in  regulating  as  in  establishing  a  home. 
They  recognize  and  make  liberal  allowance  for 
palpable,  outspoken  wants,  yet  are  unmindful  or 
contemptuous  of  others  equally  important,  but 
less  on  the  surface,  and  less  sharply  defined.  A 
man  who  would  incur  self-reproach  and  the  con- 
tempt of  his  neighbors  by  allowing  his  wife  to 
suffer  from  lack  of  bread  in  his  house,  will  not 
suspect  so  much  as  a  slight  dereliction  of  duty  in 
allowing  her  to  suffer  from  lack  of  beauty  there. 
A  woman  who  is  never  weary  of  meeting  the 
demands  upon  her  husband's  palate,  who  will 
have  the  joint  cooked  exactly  to  his  liking,  and 
the  dinner  prompt  to  his  convenience,  would  scout 
the  thought  of  leaving  her  morning's  occupation 
to  give  him  her  company  in  a  two  hours'  drive. 
People  will  devote  their  lives  uncomplainingly  to 
meeting  each  other's  wants,  but  will  neutralize  all 
their  efforts  and  sacrifice  happiness  hand  over  hand 
by  neglecting  or  disregarding  each  other's  tastes. 
They  will  spend  all  their  money  in  thatching  the 
roof,  but  will  do  just  nothing  at  all  to  keep  the  fire 
alive  on  the  hearth.  There  are  very  few  indeed 
who  are  not  able  to  do  both.  Of  course  if  people 
lavish  their  whole  strength  on  gross  matters,  they 
have  none  left  for  the  finer ;  but  it  is  not  often  that 
gross  matters  need  the  whole  strength.  A  careful 
observation  and  just  views  would  be  able,  as  a 
general  thing  without  detriment,  to  wrest  many  an 
hour  from  vain,  vulgar,  useless,  or  harmful  pur- 


236  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

suits,  to  bestow  it  upon  adornments  and  amenities 
that  do  not  perish  with  the  using.  And  if  a  man 
or  a  woman  is  so  deteriorated  as  to  prefer  the  in- 
dulgence of  a  coarse  or  frivolous  appetite,  or  the 
inordinate  indulgence  of  a  merely  natural  appetite, 
'  to  the  gratification  and  cultivation  of  refined  and 
elevated  tastes,  —  the  more  's  the  pity  ! 


XIII. 


MARVEL  that  men  who  lay  so  little 
stress  on  the  heart,  by  reason  of  the 
great  stress  they  lay  upon  the  intellect, 
should  use  their  intellects  to  so  little 
purpose  in  matters  so  important,  and  which  come 
so  closely  home  to  their  business  and  bosoms  as 
those  we  have  been  discussing.  I  marvel  that, 
while  they  see  facts  so  distinctly,  they  have  so 
little  skill  to  trace  out  causes.  Many  instances 
have  been  given  to  show  how  far  more  unrea- 
sonable, intense,  malignant,  vulgar,  and  venomous 
is  the  hatred  of  their  country  shown  and  felt  by 
Southern  women  than  that  evinced  by  Southern 
men.  It  is  very  commonly  said  that  they  have 
done  more  than  the  men  to  keep  alive  the  rebel- 
lion. The  coarseness  and  impropriety  of  their 
behavior  have  been  relatively  far  greater  than 
that  of  the  men.  Has  any  one  ever  suggested  that 
the  narrowness,  the  utter  insufficiency  of  their 
education,  the  state  of  almost  absolute  pupilage 
bedizened  over  with  a  gaudy  tinsel  of  tilt  and 


238  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

tournament  chivalry  in  which  they  have  been  kept,  < 
absolutely  incapacitating  them  for  broad  views, 
rational  thinking,  or  even  a  refined  self-possession 
in  emergencies,  had  anything  to  do  with  it  ?  In 
a  newspaper  published  under  the  auspices  of  one 
of  our  Sanitary  Fairs,  a  contributor  says :  "  I 
never  saw  a  nurse  from  any  hospital,  but  I  asked 
her  the  question  if  the  ladies  there  worked  without 
jealousy  or  unkind  feeling  toward  each  other  ?  and 
I  have  not  found  the  first  one  who  could  amwer 
'  yes '  to  that  question I  know  a  gentle- 
man (a  noble  one,  too)  who  urged  his  daughter 
not  to  go  to  the  hospitals,  '  because,'  said  he, 
'  you  will  surely  get  into  a  muss  :  it  cannot  be 
helped  ;  women  cannot  be  together  without  it." 
Is  it  indeed  an  arrangement  of  Divine  Providence, 
that  women  cannot  act  together  without  so  much 
bickering,  jealousy,  petty  domineering,  small  envies, 
and  venomous  quarrels,  as  to  make  it  undesirable 
that  they  should  act  together  at  all  ?  Is  magnanim- 
ity impossible  to  women  ?  Are  they  incapable  of 
exercising  it  towards  each  other  ?  Or  may  it  not 
be  that  their  lives  have  generally  so  little  breadth, 
they  are  so  universally  absorbed  in  limited  inter- 
ests, their  "  sphere  "  has  been  so  rigidly  circum- 
scribed to  their  own  families,  that  when  they  are 
set  in  wider  circles,  they  are  like  spoiled  children  ? 
In  t}ie  troubles  that  arise  in  female  conventions  and 
combinations,  I  do  not  see  any  inherent  deficiency 
of  female  organization,  but  every  sign  of  very 
serious  deficiencies  in  female  education. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  239 

Men  make  merry  over  the  unwillingness  of 
women  to  acknowledge  their  increasing  years; 
over  the  artifices  to  which  they  resort  for  the  pur- 
pose of  hiding  the  encroachments  of  time  ;  but  the 
reluctance  and  the  deception  are  the  direct  harvest 
of  men's  own  sowing.  It  is  men,  and  nobody  else, 
•w  ho  are  chiefly  to  blame  for  the  weakness  and  the 
meanness.  They  have  decreed  what  shall  be  coin 
and  what  counters,  and  women  do  but  acknowl- 
edge their  image  and  superscription.  Exceptions 
are  not  innumerous,  but  I  think  every  one  will 
confess,  upon  a  moment's  reflection,  that  in  the 
general  apportionment  the  heroines  of  literature 
are  the  lovely  and  delightful  young  women,  and 
tne  hatred,  envy,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness 
are  allotted  to  the  old.  Hetty  Sorrels  are  not 
very  common,  nor  Mrs.  Bennetts  very  uncom- 
mon. Why  should  not  women  dread  to  be  thought 
old,  when  age  is  tainted  and  taunted  ?  Why 
should  they  not  fight  off  its  approaches,  when  it  is 
mdissolubly  connected  with  repulsive  traits  ?  Wo- 
men see  themselves  prized  and  petted,  not  chiefly 
for  those  qualities  which  age  improves,  but  for 
those  which  it  destroys  or  impairs.  And  as  women 
are  made  by  nature  to  set  a  high  value  upon  the 
good  opinions  of  men,  and  are  warped  by  a  vicious 
education  into  setting  almost  the  sole  value  of  life 
upon  them,  they  logically  cling  with  the  utmost 
tenacity  to  that  youth  which  is  their  main  security 
for  regard.  "  Youth  and  beauty  "  are  the  twin 


240  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

deities  of  song  and  story.  "  Youth  and  beauty  " 
are  supposed  to  unlock  the  doors  of  fate.  It  is  no 
matter  that  in  real  life  fact  may  not  comport  with 
the  statements  of  fiction.  No  matter  that  in  real 
life  the  strongest  power  carries  the  day,  whether  it 
be  youthful  or  aged,  fair  or  frightful.  The  events 
of  real  life  have  but  small  radii,  but  the  ripples 
of  romance  circle  out  over  the  whole  sea  of  civil- 
ization, and  wave  succeeds  wave  till  the  impres- 
sion becomes  wellnigh  continuous. 

(One  can  hardly  suppress  a  smile,  by  the  way,  at 
the  absurdity  which  this  coupling  sometime?  pre- 
supposes. A  man  will  think  to  swell  your  horror 
of  rebel  barbarities  by  asserting  that  they  spared 
neither  youth  nor  beauty,  as  if  you  like  to  be  shot 
any  better  because  you  are  old  and  ugly  !) 

So  with  tight-lacing  and  the  new  attachment  of 
a  chiropodist  to  fashionable  families.  Most  men, 
it  is  true,  harangue  against  the  former ;  but  if 
masculine  sentiment  were  really  set  against  tight- 
lacing  and  its  results,  do  you  think  girls  would 
long  make  their  dressing-maids  sit  up  waiting 
their  return  from  balls,  lest  an  unpractised  hand 
should  not  unloose  the  lacings  by  those  short 
and  easy  stages  which  are  necessary  to  prevent 
the  shock  of  nature's  too  sudden  rebound  ?  Oi 
if  you  plead  "  not  guilty  "  to  this  count,  do  you 
believe  that  girls  who  have  been  liberally  educated^ 
taught  to  turn  their  eyes  to  large  prospects,  large 
duties,  and  large  hopes,  could  be  induced  so  to  put 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  241 

themselves  to  the  torture  ?  Was  a  right-minded 
and  right-hearted  loving  and  beloved  wife,  an  in- 
telligent and  judicious  Christian  mother,  a  wise 
and  kindly  woman,  ever  known  voluntarily  to  as- 
sume a  strait-waistcoat  ?  If  girls  were  trained  as 
every  living  soul  should  be  trained,  would  it  be 
necessary  to  have  a  "  professor  "  go  the  rounds  of 
fine  houses  in  the  morning  to  undo  the  injuries  in- 
flicted by  tight  shoes  on  the  previous  evening  ? 
If  a  girl  were  sagaciously  managed,  would  she 
not  have  too  much  discrimination  to  suppose  that, 
when  a  poet  sings  of 

"  Her  feet  beneath  her  petticoat 
Like  little  mice/' 

she  is  expected  to  reduce  her  feet  to  the  dimensions 
of  mice,  or  that,  when  he  announces 

"  That  which  her 'slender  waist  confined 
Shall  now  my  joyful  temples  bind/' 

she  is  thinking  of  a  slenderness  produced  by  lashing 
herself  to  the  bedpost?  Be  sure  a  woman  will 
never  cramp  her  body  in  that  way,  until  society 
has  cramped  her  soul  and  mind  to  still  more  un- 
natural distortion.  Lay  the  axe  unto  the  root  of 
the  tree,  if  you  wish  to  accomplish  anything  ;  do 
not  merely  stand  off  and  throw  pebbles  at  the 
fruit. 

Society  is  unsparing  in  its  censure  of  the  girl 
who  boasts  of  her  "  offers."     There  are  few  things 
which  men  will  not  sooner  forgive  than  the  reve- 
11  p 


242  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

lation  of  their  own  rejected  proposals.  Bayard 
Taylor  makes  Hannah  Thurston  recoil  in  disgust 
at  Seth  Wattles's  hesitating  suggestion:  "You, — 
you  won't  say  anything  about  this  ?  "  "  What  do 
you  take  me  for  ?  "  exclaims  immaculate  woman- 
hood. Why  then  is  a  girl's  life  made  to  consist  in 
the  abundance  of  her  suitors  ?  It  is  stamped  a 
shame  for  a  woman  not  to  receive  an  offer,  and 
then  it  is  stamped  a  shame  for  her  to  take  away 
her  reproach  by  revealing  that  she  has  received 
one.  Surely,  she  is  in  evil  case ! 

I  do  not  profess  any  overweening  admiration 
for  those  qualities  of  character  which  induce  tho 
exultant  publication  of  such  personal  items ;  but 
I  do  say  that  men  have  no  right  to  complain. 
The  natural  results  of  their  own  course  would 
not  be  any  more  than  accomplished,  if  "  offers  " 
were  published  in  the  newspapers  along  with  the 
deaths  and  marriages. 

If  you  really  wish  women  to  be  magnanimous, 
catholic,  you  must  grant  to  them  the  conditions 
of  becoming  so.  Just  so  long  as  their  souls  are 
cabined,  cribbed,  and  confined,  whether  in  a  pal- 
ace or  in  a  hovel,  with  only  such  fresh  air  as 
a  narrow  crevice  or  casement  may  afford,  they 
will  have  but  a  stunted  and  unsymmetrical  de- 
velopment. You  cannot  systematically  and  de- 
liberately dwarf  or  repress  nine  faculties,  and 
wickedly  stimulate  one,  and  that  a  subordinate 
one,  and  then  have  as  the  result  a  perfect  woman. 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  243 

You  may  force  Nature,  but  she  will  have  her 
revenges.  He  that  offendeth  in  one  point,  is 
guilty  of  all.  The  blow  that  you  aim  at  the 
head,  not  only  makes  the  whole  head  sick,  but 
the  whole  heart  faint.  When  you  have  brought 
women  to  the  point  of  writing  such  babble  as, 

"  We  poor  women,  feeble-natured, 

Large  of  heart,  in  wisdom  small, 
"Who  the  world's  incessant  battle 

Cannot  understand  at  all,"  &c.,  &c.,  &c., 

do  you  think  you  have  laid  the  foundation  for  solid 
character  ?  Lay  aside  your  alternate  weakness 
and  severity,  your  silly  coddling  and  your  equally 
silly  cautioning,  and  permit  a  woman  to  be  a 
human  being.  Let  the  free  winds  have  free  ac- 
cess to  her,  bringing  the  fragrance  of  June  and 
the  frostiness  of  December.  Fling  wide  open  all 
the  portals,  that  the  sacred  soul  may  go  in  and  out 
as  God  decreed.  Let  every  power  which  God 
has  bestowed  have  free  course  to  run  and  be 
glorified,  and  you  shall  truly  find  before  long 
that  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  shall  prosper  in 
the  hands  of  women. 

If  the  weakness  and  ignorance  and  frivolity  of 
which  I  have  spoken  be  natural,  as  it  is  insisted, 
if  the  heaven-born  instincts  of  women  do,  as  you 
in  effect  asseverate,  lead  women  to  devote  them 
selves  exclusively  to  all  manner  of  materialism 
and  pettinesses,  and  to  be  content  with  what  sus- 
tenance they  can  find  in  the  crumbs  of  love  that 


244  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

fall  from  their  husbands'  tables ;  if  it  is  unnatural 
and  unwomanly,  as  you  say  it  is,  to  have  other 
inclinations  and  aspirations,  and  to  experience 
any  personal  or  social  discontent,  —  why  do  you 
say  so  much  to  urge  them  to  such  devotion  and 
content?  People  are  not  largely  given  to  do- 
ing unnatural  things.  They  do  not  need  incen- 
tives, strenuous  persuasion,  labored  and  reiterat- 
ed arguments,  to  induce  them  to  do  what  their 
hearts  by  creation  incline  them  to  do  ;  nor  do 
they  need  to  be  held  back  by  main  force  from 
that  to  which  they  have  no  natural  leaning.  No- 
body builds  a  dam  to  make  water  run  down  hill. 
No  tunnelling  nor  blasting  of  rocks  is  necessary 
to  lure  rivers  to  the  ocean.  No  urging  and 
coaxing  must  be  resorted  to  before  the  parent- 
robins  build  a  nest  and  gather  food  for  their 
young.  But  the  instincts  of  women  are  as  strong, 
the  nature  of  women  is  as  marked,  as  those  of 
birds,  and  there  is  no  need  of  your  counselling 
them  to  walk  in  the  paths  which  God  has  ap- 
pointed for  their  feet.  No.  You  do  not  really 
believe  what  you  are  saying.  You  feel,  if  you 
do  not  know,  —  you  have  a  dim,  instinctive  sense 
that  the  life  which  you  appoint  to  women  is  not 
their  natural  life.  It  crushes  and  deforms  their 
nature  continually,  and  continually  Nature  bursts 
out  in  violent  resistance,  and  continually  with 
shriek  and  din  and  clamor  you  strive  to  frighten 
her  back  into  her  narrow  torture-house,  with  a 
success  all  too  great. 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  245 

There  seems  to  lurk  in  the  masculine  breast*  an 
unmanly  fear  lest  the  development  of  the  female 
mind  should  be  fatal  to  the  superiority  of  the 
male  mind.  But  a  superiority  which  must  pro- 
long its  existence  by  the  enforcement  of  igno- 
rance is  of  a  very  ignoble  sort.  If,  to  preserve 
his  relative  position,  man  must,  by  persuasion  or 
by  law,  forbid  to  women  opportunities  for  edu- 
cation and  a  field  for  action,  together  with  moral 
support  in  obtaining  the  one  and  contesting  in  the 
other,  he  pays  to  the  female  mind  a  greater  com- 
pliment, and  heaps  upon  his  own  character  a 
greater  reproach,  than  the  highest  female  attain- 
ments could  do.  He  shows  that  he  dares  not 
risk  a  fair  trial.  If  she  cannot  rival  him,  the 
sooner  she  makes  the  attempt,  and  incurs  the 
failure,  the  sooner  will  she  revert  to  her  old  po- 
sition, and  the  sooner  will  peace  be  restored. 
The  very,  discouragement  by  which  man  sur- 
rounds her  shows  that  he  does  not  believe  in 
the  original  and  inherent  necessity  of  her  present 
position.  If  this  counsel  be  of  women  merely, 
it  will  come  to  naught  of  itself.  You  need  not 
bring  up  so  much  rhetoric  against  it.  But  if  it 
be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it;  lest  haply 
ye  be  found  even  to  fight  against  God. 

There  is  another  fear,  equally  honest,  but  more 
honorable,  or  rather  less  dishonorable.  There  is 
a  belief,  apparently,  that  the  womanly  character 
somehow  needs  the  restraints  of  existing  customs. 


246  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

It  -is  feared  that  a  sudden  rush  of  science  to  the 
female  brain  would  produce  asphyxia  in  the  fe- 
male heart.  It  is  feared  that  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy, the  higher  mathematics,  and  the  ancient 
languages  would  unsex  women,  —  would  destroy 
the  gentleness,  the  tenderness,  the  softness,  the 
yieldingness,  the  sweet  and  endearing  qualities 
which  traditionally  belong  to  them.  They  would 
lose  all  the  graces  of  their  sex,  and  become,  say 
men,  as  one  of  us. 

From  such  a  fate,  good  Lord  !  deliver  us.  I 
agree  most  heartily  with  men  in  the  opinion,  that 
no  calamity  could  be  more  fatal  to  woman  than 
a  growing  likeness  to  men  ;  but  no  cloud  so  big 
as  the  smallest  baby's  smallest  finger-nail  portends 
it.  Healthy  development  never  can  produce  un- 
healthy results.  Nature  is  never  at  war  with 
herself.  The  good  and  wise  and  all-powerful 
Creator  never  created  a  faculty  to  be  destroyed, 
a  faculty  whose  utmost  cultivation^  if  harmonious 
and  not  discordant,  should  be  injurious.  He 
made  all  things  beautiful  and  beneficial  in  their 
proper  places.  It  is  only  arbitrary  contraction 
and  expansion  that  produce  mischief.  It  is  the 
neglect  of  one  thing  and  the  undue  prominence 
given  to  another  that  destroys  symmetry  and 
causes  disaster. 

There  has  been  so  little  experiment  made  in 
female  education,  that  we  must  reason  somewhat 
abstractly;  yet  we  are  not  left,  even  in  this  early 
stage,  without  witnesses. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  247 

On  the  26th  of  May,  1863,  died  Mrs.  O.  W. 
Hitchcock,  wife  of  one  of  the  Presidents  of  Am- 
herst  College.  A  writer,  who  professes  to  have 
known  her  well,  gives  the  following  account  of 
her :  — 

"  Born  in  Amherst,  March  8th,  1796,  fitted  for 
college  and  accomplished  alike  in  the  fine  arts  and 
the  exact  sciences  in  an  age  when  the  standard  of 
female  education  was  comparatively  low,  associ- 
ated with  Dr.  Hitchcock,  then  unknown  to  the 
public,  in  the  instruction  of  Deerfield  Academy, 
and  there  the  instrument  of  her  future  husband's 
conversion,  filling  to  the  full  the  office  of  a  pastor's 
wife  for  five  years,  in  Conway,  Massachusetts,  and 
for  the  rest  of  her  long  life  sharing  all  her  hus- 
band's labors,  sorrows,  joys,  and  honors,  while  at 
the  same  time  she  was  the  centre  of  every  pri- 
vate, social,  charitable,  and  public  movement  of 
which  it  was  suitable  for  a  lady  to  be  the  centre, 
she  passed  away  from  us  by  a  death  as  serenely 
beautiful  as  the  evening  on  which  she  died,  May 
26,  1863,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven,  leaving  a 
vacancy  not  only  in  the  home  and  the  hearts  of 
her  bereaved  husband  and  afflicted  children,  but 
in  the  community  and  the  wide  circle  of  her  ac- 
quaintance, which  can  be  filled  by  none  but  Him 
who  comforted  the  mourning  family  at  Bethany. 
If  strangers  would  form  some  idea  of  what  Mrs. 
Hitchcock  was,  especially  as  a  help  meet  for  her 
honored  husband,  and  if  friends  would  refresh 


248  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

their  memory  of  a  truly  '  virtuous  woman,'  let 
them  read,  as  it  were  over  her  still  open  grave, 
the  dedication,  by  Dr.  Hitchcock,  of  his  '  Religion 
and  Geology'  to  his  'beloved  wife.*  Never  did 
husband  pay  to  wife  a  higher  or  juster  tribute  of 
respect  and  affection. 

"  The  following  is   the  dedication  referred  to. 
It  was  written  in  1851 :  — 


"  *  To  my  beloved  Wife.  Both  gratitude  and  affec- 
tion prompt  me  to  dedicate  these  Lectures  to  you. 
To  your  kindness  and  self-denying  labors  I  have 
been  mainly  indebted  for  the  ability  and  leisure  to 
give  any  successful  attention  to  scientific  pursuits. 
Early  should  I  have  sunk  under  the  pressure  of 
feeble  health,  nervous  despondency,  poverty,  and 
blighted  hopes,  had  not  your  sympathies  and 
cheering  counsels  sustained  me.  And  during  the 
last  thirty  years  of  professional  labors,  how  little 
could  I  have  done  in  the  cause  of  science,  had 
you  not,  in  a  great  measure,  relieved  me  of  the 
cares  of  a  numerous  family  !  Furthermore,  while 
I  have  described  scientific  facts  with  the  pen  only, 
how  much  more  vividly  have  they  been  portrayed 
by  your  pencil !  And  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate 
that  your  name  should  be  associated  with  mine  in 
any  literary  effort  where  the  theme  is  geology  ; 
since  your  artistic  skill  has  done  more  than  my 
voice  to  render  that  science  attractive  to  the 
young  men  whom  I  have  instructed.  I  love  es 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  249 

pecially  to  connect  your  name  with  an  effort  to 
defend  and  illustrate  that  religion  which  I  am  sure 
is  dearer  to  you  than  everything  else.  I  know 
that  you  would  forbid  this  public  allusion  to  your 
labors  and  sacrifices,  did  I  not  send  it  forth  to 
the  world  before  it  meets  your  eye.  But  I  am 
unwilling  to  lose  this  opportunity  of  bearing  a  tes- 
timony which  both  justice  and  affection  urge  me 
to  give.  In  a  world  where  much  is  said  of  female 
deception  and  inconstancy,  I  desire  to  testify  that 
one  man  at  least  has  placed  implicit  confidence  in 
woman,  and  has  not  been  disappointed.  Through 
many  checkered  scenes  have  we  passed  together, 
both  on  the  land  and  the  sea,  at  home  and  in  for- 
eign countries  ;  and  now  the  voyage  of  life  is  al- 
most ended.  The  ties  of  earthly  affection,  which 
have  so  long  united  us  in  uninterrupted  harmony 
and  happiness,  will  soon  be  sundered.  But  there 
are  ties  which  death  cannot  break  ;  and  we  in- 
dulge the  hope  that  by  them  we  shall  be  linked 
together  and  to  the  throne  of  God  through  eter- 
nal ages.  In  life  and  in  death  I  abide 
"  '  Your  affectionate  husband, 

"  '  EDWARD  HITCHCOCK.'  ' 

Note  here  everything,  but  specially  two  things, 
1.  Mrs.  Hitchcock  was  fitted  for  college,  accom- 
plished in  the  fine  arts   and  the  exact  sciences, 
sympathized  in  her  husband's   tastes  and  under- 
stood his  pursuits  so  thoroughly  as  to  be  able  to 
11* 


250  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

render  him  essential  assistance  in  his  professional 
duties. 

2.  Note  the  use  and  connections  of  the  word 
kindness.  She  relieved  him  of  the  cares  of  a 
numerous  family,  and  so  gave  him  leisure  for  his 
scientific  researches.  Does  that  invalidate  what  I 
have  before  said  regarding  paternal  duties  ?  On 
the  contrary,  it  strengthens  my  words.  Dr.  Hitch- 
cock, in  the  fulness  of  his  beautiful  fame,  in  the 
ripeness  of  his  years,  confirms  the  truth  of  my 
principles.  He  knew  —  the  great-hearted  gentle- 
man, the  beloved  disciple  —  that  these  cares  be- 
longed to  him  by  right,  and  that  it  was  of  grace 
and  not  of  law  that  his  wife  assumed  them.  So 
impressed  is  he  with  her  kindness,  so  filled  with 
gratitude  is  his  magnanimous  heart,  that  he  even 
ventures  to  run  the  risk  of  wounding  her  delicacy 
by  offering  thanks  in  this  public  manner  ;  shield- 
ing her,  however,  from  every  breath  of  offence  by 
skilfully  declaring  her  freedom  from  all  participa- 
tion in  the  publicity.  He  uses  the  word  kindness 
properly.  It  was  a  kindness,  indeed,  for  her  to 
step  out  of  her  own  sphere  and  assume  the  bur- 
dens of  his ;  but  her  husband's  love  was  her  im- 
pelling motive,  and  his  gratitude  her  exceeding 
great  reward.  Not  strictly  her  duty,  it  became 
undoubtedly  her  delight.  For  love  is  lavish. 
Love  counts  no  sacrifice,  knows  of  none.  For  a 
husband  who  loved  and  recognized  her,  a  wife 
would  bear  Atlas  on  her  shoulders.  Only  when 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  251 

it  is  coldly  reckoned  upon  as  a  right,  coldly  re- 
ceived as  a  due,  does  service  become  servitude. 

Read  now  the  dedication  of  that  royal  book 
"  On  Liberty,"  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  "  one  of  the 
most  powerful  and  original  thinkers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,"  a  man  of  culture  so  thorough 
that  his  has  been  said  to  be  the  most  cultivated 
mind  of  the  age  :  — 

"  To  the  beloved  and  deplored  memory  of  her 
who  was  the  inspirer,  and  in  part  the  author,  of 
all  that  is  best  in  my  writings,  —  the  friend  and 
wife  whose  exalted  sense  of  truth  and  right  was 
my  strongest  incitement,  and  whose  approbation 
was  my  chief  reward,  —  I  dedicate  this  volume. 
Like  all  that  I  have  written  for  many  years,  it 
belongs  as  much  to  her  as  to  me ;  but  the  work  as 
it  stands  has  had,  in  a  very  insufficient  degree,  the 
inestimable  advantage  of  her  revision  ;  some  of 

O  7 

the  most  important  portions  having  been  reserved 
for  a  more  careful  re-examination,  which  they  are 
now  never  destined  to  receive.  Were  I  but  ca- 
pable of  interpreting  to  the  world  one  half  the 
great  thoughts  and  noble  feelings  which  are  buried 
in  her  grave,  I  should  be  the  medium  of  a  greater 
benefit  to  it  than  is  ever  likely  to  arise  from  any- 
thing that  I  can  write,  unprompted  and  unassisted 
by  her  all  but  unrivalled  wisdom." 

Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  we  are  told  by 
encyclopedists,  was  educated  in  a  masculine 
range  of  studies,  and  with  a  masculine  strictness 


252  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

of  intellectual  discipline.  The  poets  and  philoso- 
phers of  Greece  were  the  companions  of  her  mind. 
In  imaginative  power  and  originality  of  intellectual 
construction  she  is  said  to  be  entitled  to  the  very 
first  place  among  the  later  English  poets.  She 
had  considered  carefully,  and  was  capable  of  treat- 
ing wisely,  the  deepest  social  problems  which 
have  engaged  the  attention  of  the  most  sagacious 
and  practical  minds.  Society  in  the  aggregate, 
and  the  self-consciousness  of  the  solitary  individual, 
were  held  in  her  grasp  with  equal  ease,  and  ob- 
served with  equal  accuracy.  She  had  a  states- 
man's comprehension  of  the  social  and  political 
problems  which  perplex  the  well-wishers  of  Italy, 
and  discussed  them  with  the  spirit  of  a  statesman. 
This  is  not  my  pronunciamento  nor  my  language, 
but  those  of  Hon.  George  S.  Hillard. 

With  a  word  fitly  spoken  this  eminently  strong- 
minded  woman  drew  to  her  side  a  poet  of  poets, 
and  he  in  turn  drew  her  to  his  heart. 

When  ten  years  of  marriage  had  made  him  so 
well  acquainted  with  his  wife  as  to  give  weight  to 
his  testimony,  he  wrote,  at  the  close  of  a  volume  of 
poems  called  "  Men  and  Women,"  "  One  word 
more,"  —  surely  the  seemliest  word  that  ever  poet 
uttered.  He  sang  of  the  one  sonnet  that  Rafael 
wrote,  of  the  one  picture  that  Dante  painted,  — 

"  Once,  and  only  once,  and  for  one  only, 
(Ah,  the  prize  !)  to  find  his  love  a  language 
Fit  and  fair  and  simple  and  sufficient/'  — 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  253 

and  somewhat  sadly  adds  :  — 

"  I  shall  never,  in  the  years  remaining, 
Paint  you  pictures,  no,  nor  carve  you  statues, 
Make  you  music  that  should  all-express  me ; 
So  it  seems  :  I  stand  on  my  attainment. 
This  of  verse  alone,  one  life  allows  me ; 
Other  heights  in  other  lives,  God  willing  — 
All  the  gifts  from  all  the  heights,  your  own,  Love. 

"  Yet  a  semblance  of  resource  avails  us  — 
Shade  so  finely  touched,  love's  sense  must  seize  it. 
Take  these  lines,  look  lovingly  and  nearly, 
Lines  I  write  the  first  time  and  the  last  time. 

He  who  writes  may  write  for  once,  as  I  do. 

"  Love,  you  saw  me  gather  men  and  women, 
Live  or  dead  or  fashioned  by  my  fancy. 

I  am  mine  and  yours,  —  the  rest  be  all  men's. 
Let  me  speak  this  once  in  my  true  person, 

Though  the  fruit  of  speech  be  just  this  sentence,  — 
Pray  you,  look  on  these  my  men  and  women, 
Take  and  keep  my  fifty  poems  finished ; 
Where  my  heart  lies,  let  my  brain  lie  also  ! 
Poor  the  speech ;  be  how  I  speak,  for  all  things. 

«  Not  but  that  you  know  me  !  Lo,  the  moon's  self  1 
Here  in  London,  yonder  late  in  Florence. 
Still  we  find  her  face,  the  thrice-transfigured. 

What,  there  's  nothing  in  the  moon  noteworthy  1 
Nay  —  for  if  that  moon  could  love  a  mortal, 
Use,  to  charm  him  (so  to  fit  a  fancy) 
All  her  magic  (Jt  is  the  old  sweet  mythos) 


254  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

She  would  turn  a  new  side  to  her  mortal, 

Side  unseen  of  herdsman,  huntsman,  steersman,  — 

Blank  to  Zoroaster  on  his  terrace, 

Blind  to  Galileo  on  his  turret, 

Dumb  to  Homer,  dumb  to  Keats — him,  even! 

God  be  thanked,  the  meanest  of  his  creatures 
Boasts  two  soul-sides,  —  one  to  face  the  world  with, 
One  to  show  a  woman  when  he  loves  her. 

"  This  I  say  of  me,  but  think  of  you,  Love  ! 
This  to  you,  —  yourself  my  moon  of  poets  ! 
Ah,  but  that 's  the  world's  side,  —  there  's  the  wonder,  — 
Thus  they  see  you,  praise  you,  think  they  know  you. 
There,  in  turn  I  stand  with  them  and  praise  you, 
Out  of  my  own  self,  I  dare  to  phrase  it, 
But  the  best  is  when  I  glide  from  out  them, 
Cross  a  step  or  two  of  dubious  twilight, 
Come  out  on  the  other  side,  the  novel 
Silent  silver  lights  and  darks  undreamed  of, 
When  I  hush  and  bless  myself  with  silence. 

{l  0,  their  Rafael  of  the  dear  Madonnas, 
O,  their  Dante  of  the  dread  Inferno, 
Wrote  one  song  —  and  in  my  brain  I  sing  it, 
Drew  one  angel  —  borne,  see,  on  my  bosom  ! " 

Have  you  read  it  a  hundred  times  before  ?  Are 
you  not  grateful  to  me  for  giving  you  an  excuse 
to  begin  on  the  second  hundred? 

0  women,  since  the  heavens  have  been  opened 
to  reveal  these  points  of  light,  and  you  can  infer 
somewhat  the  radiance  which  may  wrap  you  about 
with  ineffable  glory,  will  you  be  satisfied  again 
with  the  beggarly  elements  of  a  sordid  world  ? 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  255 

Seeing  on  what  heights  a  woman  may  stand,  will 
you  lower  to  the  level  graded  by  generations  of 
silly,  selfish,  sensual  male  minds  ?  Is  it  really 
worth  while  ?  If  it  is  not  a  good  bargain  to  lose 
your  own  soul  that  you  may  gain  the  whole  world, 
what  must  it  be  to  lose  your  soul  and  gain  only  a 
few  stereotyped  phrases  ?  If  every  other  man 
that  ever  lived  preached  a  crusade  for  "  stocking- 
mending,  love,  and  cookery,"  and  only  these  three 
whom  I  have  mentioned  bore  a  different  banner, 
would  it  not  still  be  better  to  shape  your  course  by 
theirs  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  be  worthy  of  the  re- 
spect and  reverence  of  thinkers,  than  to  receive 
the  serenade  of  sounding  brass  ?  Is  it  not  better 
to  heed  the  one  true  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
than  to  join  in  the  uproar  of  the  idolatrous  mob 
that  shouts,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  !  " 
When  I  lose  faith  in  human  destiny,  and  am  al- 
most ready  to  say,  "  Who  shall  show  us  any  good  ?  " 
I  remember  these  utterances,  —  so  lofty  that  one 
may  say,  not  as  the  fulsome  courtiers  of  old  time 
cried,  but  reverently  and  duly,  "  It  is  the  voice  of 
God,  and  not  of  men," — I  recall  these  utterances, 
the  first  so  heartsome  and  overflowing  that  there  is 
no  thought  for  niceties  of  phrase,  but  only  one  eager 
desire  to  pay  an  undemanded  tribute,  only  a  warm, 
imperative  urgency  of  expression  ;  the  second  in- 
expressibly mournful,  but  with  such  calm  majesty 
of  pain  as  an  ancient  sculptor  might  have  wrought 
into  passionless  marble,  or  a  Roman  Senator  folded 


256  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

beneath  his  mantle; — in  the  first,  a  man  looking 
from  his  happy  earthly  home,  forward  and  upward 
to  a  happier  home  in  heaven  ;  in  the  second,  one 
gazing  hopelessly  from  his  waste  places  down  into 
darkness  and  the  grave  ;  —  the  first  believing,  "  Be- 
cause I  live  ye  shall  live  also  "  ;  the  second  sadly 
querying,  "  Man  goeth  to  the  grave,  and  where  is 
he  ?  "  —  the  first  become  as  a  little  child  through 
faith ;  the  second  only  as  a  pagan  sage  by  reason  ;  — 
the  third  heaping  up  with  ever  unwearied  and  ever 
more  delighted  hand  the  brightest  gems  of  learning 
and  fancy  to  adorn  a  beloved  brow ;  —  all  turning  at 
the  summit  of  their  renown,  at  the  point  of  their 
grandest  achievement,  to  do  honor  to  a  woman,  the 
first  two  vindicating  the  intellect  of  wifeliness,  the 
last  the  wifeliness  of  intellect ;  all  breathing  a 
magnanimity  in  whose  presence  no  smallness  can 
be  so  much  as  named  ;  —  and  I  say  there  is  more 
strength  and  courage  to  be  gained,  more  hope  for 
the  future  and  more  faith  in  humanity  to  b< 
gathered,  from  such  a  glimpse  than  from  the  con 
templation  of  five  —  what  ?  hundred  ?  thousand ' 
millions  ?  —  of  ordinary  marriages. 

But  to  return  to  the  question  at  issue,  —  An 
these  exceptional  cases  ?  It  is  man's  own  work  if 
they  are.  Just  as  the  elevation  of  one  negro  fron? 
slavery  to  supremacy,  from  stupidity  to  intelligence, 
is  an  indisputable  proof  that  the  elevation  of  tho 
whole  race  is  possible,  so  the  case  of  one  such 
woman  as  those  I  have  mentioned  settles  the  c  ues- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  257 

tion  for  the  whole  sex.  All  may  not  attain  the 
same  heights,  but  this  shows  that  intellectuality 
is  open  to  them  without  destroying  spirituality. 
Education,  it  seems,  can  do  just  as  much  for  woman 
as  for  men.  As  careful  mental  training  makes  a 
man  large-minded,  it  makes  a  woman  large-minded. 
If  it  does  not  make  a  man  narrow-souled  and  shal- 
low-hearted, it  will  not  make  a  woman  so.  If  it 
does  not  unfit  a  man  for  manly  duties,  it  will  not 
unfit  a  woman  for  womanly  duties.  If  ignorance 
and  petty  interests  and  limited  views  make  a  man 
trivial,  obstinate,  prejudiced,  why  is  it  not  the 
same  things  which  make  a  woman  so  ?  It  is  not 
necessary  to  determine  whether  there  is  an  essen- 
tial difference  between  the  masculine  and  feminine 
brain  or  nature.  All  the  difference,  both  in  quan- 
tity and  quality,  which  any  one  demands,  may 
be  granted  without  affecting  this  question  of  men- 
tal culture.  No  matter  whether  it  be  strong  or 
weak,  large  or  small,  educate  what  mind  there  is 
to  its  highest  capacity.  If  there  is  no  difference, 
it  is  so  much  gained.  If  there  is  a  difference,  each 
mind  will  select  from  the  material  furnished  that 
which  is  suitable  for  its  own  sustenance.  Violet 
and  apple-tree  grow  side  by  side.  If  the  soil  is 
poor  they  are  both  meagre ;  if  the  soil  is  rich,  they 
both  flourish.  From  the  same  tract  one  gathers 
his  golden  and  mellow  fruit,  the  other  her  glowing 
purple  richness.  You  may  put  a  covering  over  the 
violet  and  stunt  it  into  a  pale,  puny,  sickly  thing, 


258  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

or  you  may  cultivate  it  to  an  imperial  beauty.  But 
it  will  be  a  violet  still.  The  utmost  cultivation 
will  not  turn  it  into  an  apple-tree.  Every  plant 
may  have  a  different  taste  and  a  different  need 
from  every  other  plant,  but  they  all  want  the 
earth.  The  tiny  draughts  of  the  slender  anemone 
are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  rivers  of  sap  that 
bear  to  the  royal  oak  its  centuries ;  but  oak  and 
anemone  each  demands  all  the  juice  it  can  quaff, 
and  earth  and  sea  and  sky  are  alike  laid  under 
tribute  to  fill  the  fairy  drinking-cup  of  the  one, 
as  well  as  the  huge  wassail-bowl  of  the  other. 

So  with  mind.  The  philosopher,  the  poet,  the 
theologian,  the  chemist,  quarry  in  the  same  mine, 
and  each  brings  up  thence  the  treasure  that  his  soul 
loves.  The  same  cloud  sweeps  over  the  farmer  to 
refresh  his  thirsty  lands,  over  the  philosopher  to 
confirm  his  theories,  over  the  painter  to  tempt  his 
pencil.  The  principle  of  selection  that  obtains  in 
the  lower  ranks  of  Nature  will  not  fail  us  in  her 
higher  walks. 

It  is  because  law,  logic,  science,  philosophy, 
have  been  so  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of 
men,  that  they  have  accomplished  such  puerile  re- 
sults. With  all  their  beauty  and  power,  they  have 
left  our  common  life  so  poor,  and  vapid,  and 
vicious,  because  only  half  their  lesson  has  been 
learned.  But  they  bear  a^message  from  the  Most 
High,  and  when  woman  shall  be  permitted  to  lend 
ter  listening  ear  and  bring  to  the  interpretation 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  259 

her  finer  sense,  we  shall  have  good  tidings  of  great 
joy  which  shall  be  to  all  people. 

But  what  is  to  become  of  masculine  domination 
and  feminine  submission  ?  O  faithless  and  per- 
verse generation  !  Do  you  indeed  believe  that  it 
is  "  natural "  for  woman  to  trust  and  for  man  to  be 
trusted,  —  for  man  to  guide  and  woman  to  be 
guided,  —  for  man  to  rule  and  woman  to  be  ruled? 
In  whose  hand,  then,  lies  the  power  to  change  Na- 
ture ?  Is  she  so  weak  that  a  little  more  or  less  of 
this  or  that,  administered  by  one  of  her  creatures, 
can  alter  all  her  arrangements  ?  The  granite  of 
this  round  world  lies  underneath,  and  the  alluvium 
settles  on  the  surface.  Do  you  suppose  that  any- 
thing and  everything  you  can  do  in  the  way  of 
cultivation  will  have  power  to  upheave  the  gran- 
ite from  its  hidden  depths  and  send  down  the  allu- 
vium to  discharge  its  underground  duties  ?  What 
bands  hold  in  their  place  the  oxygen  and  nitro- 
gen ?  Who  says  to  the  silex  and  the  phosphorus, 
"  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther  "  ?  And 
do  you  think  that,  if  you  cannot  change  the  quan- 
tities of  these  simple  elements,  whose  processes  are 
patent  to  the  eye,  you  can  change  the  qualities  of 
the  most  complex  thing  in  the  whole  world,  which 
works  behind  an  impenetrable  veil  ?  If  you  can- 
not add  one  cubit  to  a  woman's  stature,  nor  make 
one  hair  of  her  head  white  or  black,  do  you  think 
you  can  add  or  subtract  one  feature  from  her 
rnind  ?  Cease  with  high-sounding  praise  to  extol 


260  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

the  womanly  nature,  while  practically  you  deny 
that  there  is  any.  Bring  your  deeds  up  to  your 
words.  Believe  that  God  did  not  give  to  bird  and 
brake  and  flower  a  stability  of  character  which  he 
denied  to  half  the  human  race.  Believe  that  a 
woman  may  be  a  woman  still,  though  careful  cul- 
ture make  the  wilderness  blossom  like  the  rose, 
—  and  not  only  a  woman,  but  as  much  more  and 
better  a  woman  as  the  garden  is  more  and  better 
than  the  wilderness.  The  distinctions  of  sex  are 
innate  and  eternal.  They  create  their  own  bar- 
riers, which  cannot  be  overleaped. 

Do  you  think  that,  in  the  examples  which  I  have 
given,  —  and  perhaps  in  others  which  your  own 
observation  may  have  furnished  you,  —  there  was 
any  unusual  lack  of  harmony  or  adjustment  ?  Do 
you  judge,  from  the  testimony  of  their  husbands, 
that  Mrs.  Hitchcock,  or  Mrs.  Mill,  or  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing were  any  more  overbearing,  any  more  greedy 
of  authority,  any  more  ambitious  of  outside  power, 
any  more  unlovely  and  unattractive,  than  the  sil- 
liest Mrs.  Maplesap,  who  never  knew  any  "  sterner 
duty  than  to  give  caresses  "  ?  He  must  have  used 
his  eyes  to  little  purpose  who  has  failed  to  see  that, 
in  a  symmetrical  womanhood,  every  member  keeps 
pace  with  every  other.  If  one  member  suffers,  all 
the  members  suffer.  Power  is  not  local,  but  all- 
embracing.  Weakness  does  not  coexist  with 
strength.  A  silly,  shallow  woman  cannot  love 
deeply,  cannot  live  commandingly.  I  believe  that 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  2G1 

a  woman  of  intellectual  strength  has  a  correspond- 
ing affectional  strength.  An  evil  education  may 
have  so  warped  her  that  she  seems  to  be  a  power 
for  evil  rather  than  for  good  ;  but,  all  other  things 
being  equal,  the  sounder  the  judgment  the  deeper 
the  love.  The  clear  head  and  the  strong  heart  go 
together.  A  woman  who  can  assist  her  husband 

o 

in  geology,  or  revise  his  metaphysics,  or  criticise 
his  poetry,  is  much  more  likely  to  hold  him  in 
wifely  love  and  honor,  is  much  more  likely  to  en- 
liven his  joy  and  medicine  his  weariness,  than  she 
who  can  only  clutch  at  the  hem  of  his  robe.  Her 
love  is  intelligent,  comprehensive,  firmly  founded, 
and  not  to  be  lightly  disturbed.  Weakness  may 
possess  itself  of  the  outworks,  but  is  easily  dis- 
lodged. Strength  goes  within  and  takes  posses- 
sion. 

All  the  unloveliness  and  unwisdom  which  may 
have  characterized  the  "woman's  movement,"  and 
of  which  men  seem  to  stand  in  perpetual  dread, 
are  but  the  natural  consequence  of  their  own  mis- 
doing. It  was  a  reaction  against  their  wrong.  Did 
women  demand  ungracefully  ?  It  was  because 
,heir  entreaty  had  been  scorned  and  their  grace 
slighted.  Never,  —  I  would  risk  my  life  on  the 
assertion,  —  never  did  any  number  of  women  leave 
a  home  to  clamor  in  public  for  social  rights  unless 
impelled  by  the  sting  of  social  wrongs,  either  in 
their  own  person  or  in  the  persons  of  those  dear 
to  them.  Every  unwomanliness  had  its  rise  in  a 
previous  unmanliness. 


202  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

In  a  vile,  nameless  book  to  which  I  have  before 
referred,  I  find  quoted  the  story  of  a  rajah  who  was 
in  the  habit  of  asking,  "  Who  is  she  ?  "  whenever 
a  calamity  was  related  to  him,  however  severe  or 
however  trivial.  His  attendants  reported  to  him 
one  morning  that  a  laborer  had  fallen  from  a  lad- 
der when  working  at  his  palace,  and  had  broken 
his  neck.  "  Who  is  she  ?  "  demanded  the  rajah. 
"  A  man,  no  woman,  great  prince,"  was  the  re- 
ply. "  Who  is  she  ?  "  repeated  the  rajah,  with 
increased  anger.  In  vain  did  the  attendants  assert 
the  manhood  of  the  laborer.  "  Bring  me  instant 
intelligence  what  woman  caused  this  accident,  or 
woe  upon  your  heads  !  "  exclaimed  the  prince. 
In  an  hour  the  active  attendants  returned,  and, 
prostrating  themselves,  cried  out,  "  O  wise  and 
powerful  prince,  as  the  ill-fated  laborer  was  work- 
ing on  the  scaffold,  he  was  attracted  by  the  beauty 
of  one  of  your  highness's  damsels,  and,  gazing  on 
her,  lost  his  balance  and  fell  to  the  ground." 
"You  hear  now,"  said  the  prince,  "no  accident 
can  happen  without  a  woman  being,  in  some  way, 
an  instrument." 

One  might,  perhaps,  be  pardoned  for  asking 
whether  entire  reliance  can  be  placed  on  testimony 
which  is  dictated  beforehand  on  penalty  of  losing 
one's  head ;  but  the  anecdote  indicates  about  the 
usual  quantity  of  sense  and  sagacity  which  is  pop- 
ularly brought  to  bear  on  the  "  woman  question/' 
and  we  will  let  it  pass.  I  have  quoted  the  story 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  263 

because,  by  changing  the  feminine  for  the  mas- 
culine noun  and  pronoun,  it  so  admirably  ex- 
presses my  own  views.  As  I  look  around  upon 
the  world,  and  see  the  sin,  the  sorrow,  the  suffer- 
ing, it  seems  to  me  that,  so  far  as  it  can  be  traced 
to  human  agency,  man  is  at  the  bottom  of  every 
evil  under  the  sun.  As  the  husband  is,  the  wife 
is.  The  nursery  rhyme  gives  the  whole  history 
of  man  and  woman  in  a  nutshell :  — 

«  Jack  and  Gill 

Went  up  the  hill 
To  draw  a  pail  of  water ; 

Jack  fell  down 

And  broke  his  crown, 
And  Gill  came  tumbling  after." 

Men  have  a  way  of  falling  back  on  Eve's  trans- 
gression, as  if  that  were  a  sufficient  excuse  for 
all  short-  or  wrong-coming.  Milton  glosses  over 
Adam's  part  in  the  transgression,  and  even  gives 
his  sin  a  rather  magnanimous  air,  —  which  is  very 
different  from  that  which  Adam's  character  wears 
in  Genesis,  —  while  all  the  blame  is  laid  on  "  the 
woman  whom  thou  gavest  to  be  with  me."  But 
before  pronouncing  judgment,  I  should  like  to  hear 
Eve's  version  of  the  story.  Moses  has  given  his, 
and  Milton  his,  —  the  first  doubtless  conveying  as 
much  truth  as  he  was  able  to  be  the  medium  of,  tho 
second  expressing  all  the  paganism  of  his  sex  and 
his  generation,  mingled  with  the  gall  of  his  own 
private  bitterness ;  but  we  have  never  a  word  from 


264  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

Eve.  That  is,  we  have  man's  side  represented. 
But  Eve  will  awake  one  day,  and  then,  and  not 
till  then,  we  shall  know  the  whole.  Meanwhile,  it 
is  well  for  men  to  go  back  to  the  beginning  of 
creation  to  find  woman  the  guilty  party.  If  they 
stop  anywhere  short  of  it,  they  will  be  forced  to 
shift  the  burden  to  their  own  shoulders.  A  wo- 
man may  have  been  originally  one  step  in  advance 
of  man  in  evil-doing,  but  he  very  soon  caught 
up  with  her,  and  has  never  since  suffered  himself 
to  labor  under  a  similar  disadvantage.  I  cannot 
think  of  a  single  folly,  weakness,  or  vice  in  women 
which  men  have  not  either  planted  or  fostered ; 
and  generally  they  have  done  both.  But  they  do 
not  see  the  link  between  cause  and  effect,  and  they 
fail  to  direct  their  denunciation  to  the  proper 
quarter. 

It  only  needs  to  trust  nature  !  Learn  that  wo- 
men crave  to  pay  homage  as  strongly  as  men 
crave  to  receive  it.  The  higher  women  rise  the 
more  eagerly  will  they  turn  to  somewhat  higher. 
It  cannot  be  sweeter  for  a  man  to  be  looked  up  to 
than  it  is  for  a  woman  to  look  up  to  him.  Never 
can  you  raise  women  to  such  an  altitude  that 
they  will  find  their  pride  and  pleasure  in  looking 
down.  Women  want  men  to  be  masters  quite 
as  much  as  men  themselves  wish  it ;  but  they 
want  them  first  to  be  worthy  of  it.  Women 
never  rebel  against  the  authority  of  goodness,  of 
superiority,  but  against  the  tyranny  of  obstinacy, 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  265 

ignorance,  hcartlessness.  The  supremacy  which 
a  husband  holds  by  virtue  of  his  character  is  a 
wife's  boon  and  blessing,  and  she  suns  herself  in  it 
and  is  filled  with  an  unspeakable  content.  It  is 
the  supremacy  of  mere  position,  the  supremacy  of 
inferiority,  that  galls  and  irritates  ;  that  breaks  out 
in  conventions  and  resolutions  and  remonstrances, 
in  suicide  and  insanity  and  crime.  "  The  women 
now-a-days  are  playing  the  devil  all  round,"  I 
heard  a  man  say  not  long  ago,  in  speaking*  of  a 
woman  hitherto  respectable,  who  had  left  husband 
and  children  and  eloped  with  some  unknown  ad- 
venturer. And  I  said  in  my  heart,  "  I  am  glad 
of  it.  Men  have  been  playing  the  devil  single- 
Iianded  long  enough.  I  am  glad  women  are  taking 
it  up.  Similia  similibus  curantur."  Things  must, 
to  be  sure,  be  in  a  very  dreadful  condition  to  require 
such  "  heroic  treatment,"  but  things  are  in  a  very 
Ireadful  condition,  and  if  men  will  not  amend 
them  out  of  love  of  justice  and  right  and  purity,  I 
do  not  see  any  other  way  than  that  they  must  be 
forced  to  do  it  out  of  a  selfish  regard  to  their  own 
household  comfort.  Let  my  people  go,  that  they 
may  serve  me,  was  the  word  of  the  Lord  to 
Pharaoh,  but  Pharaoh  hardened  his  heart  and 
would  not  let  the  people  go.  Not  until  there  was 
no  longer  in  Egypt  a  house  in  which  there  was 
not  one  dead  did  the  required  emancipation  come. 
Then  with  a  great  cry  of  horror  and  dread  were 
the  children  of  Israel  sent  out  as  the  Lord  their 
12 


266  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

God  commanded.  Let  my  people  go,  that  they 
may  serve  me,  seems  the  Lord  to  have  been  say- 
ing these  many  years  to  the  taskmasters  of  Amer- 
ica; but  who  is  the  Lord,  the  taskmasters  have 
cried,  that  we  should  obey  his  voice  to  let  Israel 
go  ?  We  know  not  the  Lord,  neither  will  we  let 
Israel  go.  Now  on  summer  fields  red  with  blood, 
through  the  terrible  voice  of  the  cannonade  bearing 
its  summons  of  death,  we  are  learning  in  anguish 
and  tears  who  is  the  Lord ;  and  if  men  choose 
not  to  do  justly  and  love  mercy  and  walk  softly 
with  women,  it  is  according  to  analogy  that  wo- 
men shall  become  to  them  the  scourge  of  God. 
The  very  charities,  the  tendernesses,  the  blessing 
and  beneficent  qualities  against  which  they  have 
sinned  shall  become  thongs  to  lash  and  scorpions 
to  sting,  —  and  all  the  people  shall  say  amen ! 

I  am  so  far  from  being  surprised  when  women 
occasionally  run  away  from  their  husbands,  that  I 
rather  marvel  that  there  is  not  a  hegira  of  women ; 
that  our  streets  and  lanes  are  not  choked  up  with 
fugitives.  I  do  not  believe  in  women's  leaving 
their  husbands  to  live  with  other  men  ;  it  is  infamy 
and  it  is  folly  :  but  I  do  believe  most  profoundly 
in  women's  leaving  their  husbands.  It  may  be 
their  right  and  their  duty.  I  think  there  is  not 
the  smallest  danger  in  the  state's  putting  all  pos- 
sible power  of  this  nature  into  the  hands  of  wo- 
men ;  because  a  woman's  nature  is  such  that  she 
will  never  exercise  this  power  till  she  has  borne 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  26? 

to  the  utmost,  cruelty,  malignity,  or  indifference  ; 
and,  in  point  of  morality,  indifference  is  just  as 
good  ground  for  separation  as  cruelty.  Love  is 
the  sole  morality  of  marriage,  and  a  marriage  to 
which  love  has  never  come,  or  from  which  it  lias 
departed,  is  immorality,  and  a  woman  cannot  con- 
tinue in  it  ..without  continually  incurring  stain.  I 
do  not  think  she  has  a  right  to  marry  again  ;  not 
even  a  legal  divorce  justifies  a  second  marriage  ; 
but  she  has  a  right  to  withdraw  from  the  man  who 
imbrutes  her.  If  the  law  does  not  justify  such 
action,  she  is  right  in  taking  the  matter  into  her 
own  hands.  There  is  no  power  on  earth  that 
can  make  a  woman  live  with  a  man,  if  she  chooses 
not  to  live  with  him,  and  has  a  will  strong  enough 
to  bear  out  her  choice  ;  and  when  she  finds  that 
she  ministers  only  to  his  selfishness,  w^hen  she 
discovers  that  her  marriage  is  no  marriage  at  all, 
but  an  alliance  offensive  to  all  delicacy  and  op- 
posed to  all  improvement,  she  is  not  only  justified 
in  discontinuing  it,  but  she  is  not  justified  in  con- 
tinuing it.  The  position  which  a  woman  occupies 
in  such  a  connection  is  fairer  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law,  but  morally  it  is  no  less  objectionable  than 
if  the  marriage  ceremony  had  never  taken  place. 
A  prayer  and  a  promise  cannot  turn  pollution 
into  purity. 

Is  this  a  movement  towards  violating  the  sanctity 
of  marriage  ?  It  is  rather  causing  that  marriage 
shall  not  with  its  sanctity  protect  sin.  When  a 


*68  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

slaver,  freighted  with  wretchedness,  unfurls  from 
its  masthead  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  that  it  may 
avoid  capture,  does  it  thereby  free  itself  from  guilt, 
or  does  it  desecrate  our  flag  ?  Who  honors  his 
country,  ho  who  permits  the  slave-ship  to  go  on 
her  horrible  way  protected  by  the  sacred  name 
she  has  dared  to  invoke,  or  he  who  scorns  to  suf- 
fer those  folds  to  sanction  crime,  tears  down  the 
flag  from  its  disgracing  eminence,  unlooses  the 
bands  of  the  oppressor  and  bids  the  oppressed  go 
free  ? 

But  are  there  not  inconstant,  weak  women,  who 
would  take  advantage  of  such  power,  and  for  any 
fancied  slight  or  foolish  whim  desert  a  good  home 
and  a  good  husband  ?  Well,  what  then  ?  If 
a  silly  woman  will  of  her  own  motion  go  away 
and  live  by  herself,  I  think  she  pursues  a  wise 
course  and  deserves  well  of  the  Republic.  I  do 
not  believe  her  good  husband  will  complain.  On 
the  contrary,  he  would  doubtless  adopt  a  part  at 
least  of  the  Napoleonic  principle,  and  build  a  bridge 
of  gold  for  his  fleeing  spouse.  Such  power  will 
never  make  silly  women,  though  it  may  possibly 
render  them  more  conspicuous,  and  that  will  be  a 
benefit.  The  more  vividly  a  wrong  is  seen  and 
felt,  the  more  likely  is  it  to  be  removed.  The 
remedy  for  the  mischief  which  Lord  Burleigh's 
she-fool  may  do  is,  not  to  bind  her  to  your  hearth, 
but  to  keep  her  away  from  it  altogether;  and  bet- 
ter than  a  remedy,  the  preventive  is,  so  to  treat 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  269 

women  that  they  shall  not  be  fools.  If  the  ways 
of  male  transgressors  against  women  can  be  made 
so  hard  that  they  shall,  in  very  self-defence,  set  to 
and  mend  them  —  Heaven  be  praised  ! 

But  what  of  the  Bible  ?  Is  not  the  permanency 
of  the  marriage  connection  inculcated  there  ?  No 
more  than  I  inculcate  it.  I  certainly  do  not  see  it 
enforced  in  any  such  manner  as  to  weaken  my  posi- 
tion. Its  permanency  is  assumed  rather  than  en- 
joined ;  but  a  basis  of  essential  oneness  is  also 
assumed,  which  is  the  sufficient,  the  true,  and  the 
only  true  and  sufficient  basis.  "  Therefore,"  says 
Adam,  u  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wrife  :  and  they 
shall  be  one  flesh."  But  if,  instead  of  cleaving  to 
his  wife,  a  man  cleaves  away  from  his  wrife,  and  in- 
stead of  being  one  flesh,  the  twain  become  twain,  — 
I  do  not  see  that  Adam  has  anything  to  say  on  the 
subject.  I  suppose  Eve  looked  so  lovely  to  him, 
and  he  was  so  delighted  to  have  her,  that  it  never 
occurred  to  him  to  make  any  provision  against  the 
contingency  of  his  abusing  her.  I  have  not  made 
any  especial  research,  but  I  do  not  remember  any- 
thing in  the  precepts  or  examples  of  the  Bible  that 
enjoins  the  continuance  of  association  in  spite  of 
everything.  In  principle  it  is  presumed  to  be  per- 
petual, but  in  practice  the  Bible  makes  certain 
exceptions  to  perpetuity,  —  lays  dowrn  rules  indeed 
for  separation.  "  What  God  hath  joined  together 
let  not  man  put  asunder,"  says  our  Saviour,  which 


270  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

surely  does  not  mean  that  what  greed  or  lust  or 
ambition  has  joined  together  woman  may  not  put 
asunder.  When  a  young  man  and  a  maiden,  drawn 
towards  each  other  by  their  God-given  instincts, 
have  become  one  by  love,  no  mere  outside  incom- 
patibility of  wealth  or  rank,  or  any  such  thing, 
should  forbid  them  to  become  one  by  marriage. 
For  what  God  hath  joined  together  let  not  man 
put  asunder.  But  the  God  who  would  not  permit 
an  ox  and  an  ass  to  be  voked  together  to  the  same 

«/  o 

plough,  never,  surely,  joined  in  holy  wedlock  a 
brute  and  an  angel ;  and  if  the  angel  struggles  to 
escape  from  the  unequal  yoke-fellow  to  whom  the 
powers  of  evil  have  coupled  her,  who  dare  thrust 
her  back  under  the  yoke  with  a  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  "  ?  Christ  himself  does  not  pronounce 
against  the  putting  away  of  wife  or  husband,  but 
against  the  putting  away  of  one  and  marrying 
another.  St.  Paul's  words  regarding  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  idolater  can  hardly  be  applied  in  our 
society,  but  so  far  as  they  can  be  applied  they 
confirm  my  views.  "  Let  not  the  wife  depart 
from  her  husband,"  he  says,  and  immediately  adds, 
"  but  and  if  she  depart,  let  her  remain  unmarried, 
or  be  reconciled  to  her  husband."  Precisely. 
For  no  trivial  cause  should  the  wife  give  her  hus- 
band over  to  be  the  prey  of  his  own  wicked  pas- 
sions ;  but  if  he  is  so  bad,  if  he  so  degrades  her 
life  that  she  must  depart,  let  her  remain  un- 
married. 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  271 

It  may  be  said  that  the  interests  of  children 
would  be  compromised  by  this  mode  of  procedure. 
But  the  interests  of  children  are  already  fatally 
compromised.  The  interests  of  children  are  never 
at  variance  with  those  of  their  parents.  If  it  is 
for  the  interest  of  the  mother  to  leave  her  husband, 
it  is  not  for  the  interest  of  her  children  that  she 
should  stay  with  him.  Whatever  mortification  or 
disgrace  might  come  to  a  few  children  would  not 
be  the  greatest  harm  that  could  happen  to  them, 
and  in  the  end  all  children  would  be  the  gainers. 

"  I  hold  that  man  the  worst  of  public  foes 
Who,  either  for  his  own  or  children's  sake, 
To  save  his  blood  from  scandal,  lets  the  wife 
Whom  he  knows  false  abide  and  rule  the  house." 

True.  For  u  man  "  put  "  woman,"  and  for  "  wife  " 
"  husband,"  and  it  will  be  no  less  true.  Of  one 
thing  be  sure.  The  interests  of  children  need  not 
block  the  wheels  of  legislation.  The  mother  will 
take  them  into  as  earnest  consideration  as  any  as- 
sembly of  men.  If  they  are  not  safe  in  her  hands, 
they  will  not  be  safe  in  any  hands. 

Furthermore  notice,  the  chief  stress  of  Scriptu- 
ral prohibition  is  laid  on  men.  The  rules  and  re- 
straints are  for  men.  Very  little  injunction  is  given 
to  women.  The  Inspirer  of  the  Bible  knew  the 
souls  which  he  had  made,  and  for  the  hardness  of 
men's  hearts  hedged  them  about  with  restrictions, 
and  for  the  softness  of  women's  hearts  left  them 
chiefly  to  their  own  sweet  will.  The  great 


272  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

Creator  knew  that  women  would  never  be  largely 
addicted  to  leaving  their  husbands  for  trifling 
causes,  nor  indeed  are  serious  causes  often  sufficient 
to  produce  such  results.  The  rack  and  wheel 
and  thumb-screw  of  married  life  are  generally  less 
powerful  than  the  patience  of  the  wifely  heart. 
But  his  Maker  knew,  too,  the  inconstant  nature  of 
man,  and  bound  him  with  the  strictest  charges. 
I  am  entirely  willing  to  abide  by  the  Bible.  Let 
the  state  abide  by  it  too,  and  give  to  women  the 
legal  power  to  save  themselves.  There  is  no 
danger  that  they  will  abuse  it.  They  will  even 
use  it  only  to  correct  the  most  fatal  abuse. 

But  what,  then,  becomes  of  the  marriage  vows  ? 
Shall  all  their  solemnity  vanish  as  a  thread  of  tow 
when  it  toucheth  the  fire  ?  No  ;  but  I  would  have 
the  marriage  vows  themselves  vanish.  They  are 
heathenish.  They  are  a  relic  of  barbarism.  I 
have  never  studied  into  their  origin,  but  there  is 
internal  evidence  that  women  had  neither  part  nor 
lot  in  framing  them.  The  whole  matter  is  one  of 
those  masculinities  with  which  society  has  been 
saddled  for  generations,  —  one  of  the  bungling 
makeshifts  to  which  men  resort  when  they  are  left 
to  themselves,  and  have  but  a  vague  notion  of  what 
it  is  that  they  want,  and  no  notion  at  all  of  how 
they  are  to  get  it.  Look  at  it  a  moment.  Here 
is  the  whole  world  lying  before  man,  waiting  for 
him  to  enter  in  and  take  possession.  Woman 
desires  nothing  so  much  as  that  he  should  be 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  273 

monarch  of  all  he  surveys.  She  acknowledges 
him  to  be  in  his  own  right,  she  implores  him  to 
be  by  his  own  act,  king.  The  greatest  blessing 
that  can  fall  vipon  her  is  his  coronation.  It  is 
only  when  the  king  is  come  to  his  own  that  woman 
can  enter  into  her  lawful  inheritance.  -  So  long 
as  he  keeps  his  crown  in  abeyance,  so  long  as  he 
tramples  his  prerogatives  under  foot,  she  too  misses 
the  purple  and  the  throne.  What  does  he  do  ? 
Instead  of  wearing  his  dignities,  and  discharging 
his  duties,  he  goes  clad  in  rags,  he  dwells  with 
beggars,  he  deals  in  baubles,  and  depends  for 
allegiance  upon  a  word !  With  all  his  power 
depending  solely  upon  himself,  with  love  and  life 
awaiting  only  his  worthiness,  with  a  devotion  that 
knows  no  measure  standing  ready  and  eager  to- 
bless  him,  all  the  dew  of  youth,  all  the  faith  of  in- 
nocence, all  the  boundless  trust  of  tenderness,  all 
the  grace  and  charm  and  resource  of  an  infinitely 
daring  and  enduring  affection,  —  he  turns  away 
from  it  all  and  claims  the  coarseness  of  a  promise  ! 
He  does  not  see  the  invincible  strength  of  that 
subtile,  impalpable  bond  which  God  has  ordained, 
but  trusts  his  fate  to  a  clumsy  yet  flimsy  cord 
which  himself  has  woven,  which  his  eyes  can  see 
and  his  hands  handle,  and  in  which  therefore  he 
can  believe,  no  matter  though  it  parts  at  the  first 
strain. 

Does  it  ?     Did  a  person  ever  change  his  course 
out  of  respect  to  his  marriage  vows  ?     I  do  not 
12*  B 


274  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

mean  his  marriage  or  the  marriage  ceremony,  but 
simply  the  jpromises  :  to  love,  honor,  and  cherish 
on  the  one  side  ;  to  love,  honor,  and  obey  on  the 
other.  Did  a  man's  promise  ever  fetter  his  tongue 
from  uttering  the  harsh  word  ?  Did  a  woman's 
promise  ever  induce  her  to  heed  her  husband's 
wishes  ?  I  trow  not.  The  honor  and  love  which  a 
husband  or  wife  do  not  spontaneously  render,  they 
will  seldom  render  for  a  vow.  If  the  vital  spark 
of  heavenly  flame  remains,  the  promise  is  of  no 
use.  If  it  is  gone  out,  the  promise  is  of  no 
power.  A  solemn  declaration  of  facts,  a  solemn 
assertion,  calling  upon  God  and  man  for  witness, 
would,  it  seems  to  me,  be  equally  efficient,  and 
much  more  moral,  than  the  present  form  of 
promise.  Power  over  the  future  is  not  given 
to  any  of  us,  but  we  can  all  bear  witness  of  the 
present.  The  history  of  this  war  goes  to  show 
that  oaths  of  any  sort  are  of  but  little  use,  —  mere 
wisps  of  straw  when  the  current  sets  against  them, 
—  and  that  Christ  meant  what  he  said  when  he 
said,  "  Swear  not  at  all."  But,  however  the  case 
may  stand  regarding  facts,  there  can  be  but  one 
opinion  regarding  feelings.  To  swear  to  preserve 
an  emotion  or  an  affection  is  to  assume  a  burden 
which  neither  our  fathers  nor  we  are  able  to  bear. 
And  to  take  an  oath  which  one  has  no  power  to 
keep,  has  a  tendency  to  weaken  in  men's  minds 
the  obligation  of  oaths.  If  there  must  be  swear- 
ing, we  should  act  on  Paley's  hint,  and  promise  to 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  275 

love  as  long  as  possible,  and  then  to  make  the  best 
of  the  bargain. 

'That  part  of  the  marriage  contract  which  re- 
lates to  obedience  deserves  a  separate  attention. 
What  is  meant  by  a  wife's  obedience  ?  Shall  an 
adult  person  of  ordinary  intelligence  forego  the 
use  of  her  own  judgment  and  adopt  the  conclu- 
sions of  another  person's  ?  Is  that  what  is  meant? 

To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony  again.  In  the 
beginning  nothing  is  said  of  obedience  or  lordship. 
There  is  no  subordination  of  man  to  woman  or 
woman  to  man.  They  are  simply  one  flesh.  God 
created  man  in  his  own  image ;  male  and  female 
created  he  them.  And  God  blessed  them,  and 
said  unto  them,  have  dominion,  &c.  Eve  was  to 
have  dominion  precisely  like  Adam,  so  far  as  we 
can  see.  But  in  the  fall  she  forfeited  it,  and  the 
curse  came:  "  Thy  desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband, 
and  he  shall  rule  over  thee."  When  the  king  was 
shorn  of  his  power,  the  queen  was  dethroned. 
That  settles  the  question,  does  it  not?  Not  at  all. 
God  so  loved  the  world,  that,  when  the  fulness  of 
the  time  was  come,  he  sent  forth  his  Son,  made 
of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  them 
that  were  under  the  law.  Christ  hath  redeemed 
us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse 
for  us.  So  then,  brethren,  we  are  not  children  of 
bondwomen,  but  of  free  women  ! 

If  you  do  not  believe  the  Bible,  the  curse  ia 
of  no  account.  If  you  do  believe  the  Bible, 


276  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

the  curse  is  taken  away.  Now  then  where  are 
you? 

But  St.  Paul  is  brought  in  here  with  great 
effect,  by  the  defenders  of  the  old  regime.  St. 
Paul,  living  under  the  new  dispensation,  became 
its  exponent,  reduced  it  to  a  system,  and  must  be 
considered  authority  regarding  its  meaning  and 
design.  The  curse  had  been  as  completely  taken 
away  then  as  now,  yet  he  says :  "  Wives,  submit 
yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as  unto  the 
Lord.  For  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife, 

even  as -Christ  is  the  head  of  the  church 

Therefore  as  the  church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so 
let  the  wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  in  every- 
thing." Can  anything  be  stronger  or  more  ex- 
plicit ?  Nothing.  But  if  you  take  St.  Paul,  take 
the  whole  of  him.  Accepting  for  wives  the  injunc^ 
tion  of  submission,  accept  it  also  for  yourselves  ; 
for  in  the  preceding  verses  he  says,  "  Be  filled 
with  the  spirit,  submitting  yourselves  one  to  another 
in  the  fear  of  God."  The  same  word  is  used  to 
indicate  the  relations  proper  between  husband  and 
wife  and  between  friend  and  friend.  If,  then,  ac- 
cording to  St.  Paul,  the  wife  must  absolutely  obey 
her  husband,  her  husband  must  just  as  absolutely 
obey  his  wife,  and  both  must  obey  their  next-door 
neighbor. 

Observe  also  the  manner  of  the  control  and  the 
submission,  —  "  as  unto  the  Lord."  The  husband 
is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the  head 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  277 

of  the  church.  The  wife  is  to  be  subject  to  the 
husband,  as  the  church  is  subject  to  Christ.  Why, 
this  is  just  what  1  want.  Not  a  wife  in  Christen- 
dom but  would  rejoice  to  recognize  her  husband 
to  be  her  head  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  church. 
Only  let  husbands  follow  their  model,  and  there 
would  be  no  more  question  of  obedience.  Quote 
St.  Paul  against  me?  St.  Paul  is  my  standard- 
bearer  !  If  you  had  only  obeyed  St.  Paul,  I 
should  not  be  fighting  at  all.  The  world  would 
go  on  so  smoothly  and  lovingly  that  I  should 
never  be  required  to  stir  up  its  impure  mind  by 
way  of  remembrance,  but  should  be  occupied  in 
writing  the  loveliest  little  idyls  that  ever  were 
thought  of.  It  is  the  flagrant  disregard  and  viola- 
tion of  Paul's  teachings  that  brings  me  unto  you 
with  a  rod  instead  of  in  love  and  the  spirit  of 
meekness.  I  want  no  higher  standard  than  was 
set  up  by  Paul. 

Men  reason  very  well  so  long  as  they  confine 
their  reasoning  to  pure  mathematics,  but  when 
they  attempt  to  apply  their  logic  to  practical  life, 
they  are  at  fault.  They  find  it  difficult  to  make 
allowance  for  friction.  They  do  not  observe,  and 
they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  their  observa- 
tions when  they  have  made  them.  Consequently, 
though  their  arguments  look  very  well,  they  do 
not  stand  the  test  of  experiment.  Nothing  can 
be  more  charming  than  this  implicit  trust  which 
men  so  love  and  laud,  this  unhesitating  sub- 


278  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

mission  of  the  fond  wife,  —  the  "  God  is  thy  law, 
thou  mine  "  of  Milton  (which  most  men  evidently 
believe  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  Four  Gospels  and 
most  of  the  Epistles).  Yet  its  only  practical  jus- 
tification would  be  the  infallibility  of  men.  But 
in  actual  life  men  are  not  infallible.  They  are 
just  as  likely  to  be  wrong  as  women.  The  only 
obedience  practicable  or  desirable  is  the  adoption 
of  the  wisest  course  after  consultation.  Practi- 
cally, there  is  seldom  much  trouble  about  this  mat- 
ter ;  but  there  is  none  the  less  for  all  the  theories 
and  all  the  vows  of  obedience.  Yet  we  have  it 
from  good  authority,  that  it  is  better  not  to  vow 
than  to  vow  and  not  pay. 

When  I  see  the  strenuousness  with  which  man 
has  ever  enjoined  upon  woman  respect  for  -his 
position  and  submission  to  his  will,  the  persist- 
ence with  which  he  has  maintained  his  superiority 
and  her  subordination,  the  compensatory  and  un- 
reasonable, inconsequent  homage  which  he  awards 
to  those  who  acquiesce  in  his  claims,  I  seem  to  be 
reading  a  new  version  of  an  old  story.  Man 
takes  woman  up  into  an  exceeding  high  mountain, 
and  shows  her  wrhat  seems  to  her  dazzled  eyes 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  ^world,  and  the  glory  of 
them,  and  says  unto  her,  "All  these  things  will  I 
give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me." 
But  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,  —  "  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God, 
and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  For  many  gen- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  279 

erations  the  world  has  reaped  a  bitter  harvest  from 
worshipping  and  serving  the  creature  more  than 
the  Creator.  Eve's  desire  was  to  the  man,  and  he 
ruled  over  her  consequently,  and  she  brought  forth 
a  murderer.  The  virgin-mother  rejoiced  primarily 
in  God,  and  that  Holy  Thing  which  was  born  of 
her  was  called  the  Son  of  God.  For  six  thousand 
years  the  works  of  the  flesh  have  been  manifest, 
which  are  these  :  adultery,  fornication,  unclean- 
ness,  lasciviousness,  idolatry,  witchcraft,  hatred, 
variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strife,  seditions,  her- 
esies, envyings,  murders,  drunkenness,  revellings, 
and  such  like.  But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love, 
joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness, 
faith,  meekness,  temperance. 

When  women  begin  to  talk  of  right,  men  begin 
to  talk  of  courtesy.  They  are  very  willing  that 
women  should  be  angels,  but  they  are  not  willing 
that  they  should  be  naturally-developed  women. 
They  like  to  pay  compliments,  but  they  like  not  to 
award  dues.  One  great  article  of  their  belief  is, 

that 

"  A  woman  ripens  like  a  peach, 
In  the  cheeks  chiefly/' 

and  the  rod  perpetually  held  over  any  deeper 
ripening  is  the  not  always  unspoken  threat  of  a 
forfeiture  of  masculine  deference.  From  those 
who  want  what  they  have  not  shall  be  taken  away 
that  which  they  have.  Very  well,  take  it  away. 
No  thoughtful  woman  desires  any  homage  that  can 


280  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

be  given  or  withheld  at  pleasure.  The  only  rev- 
erence, the  only  respect,  which  has  any  value,  is 
that  which  springs  from  the  depths  of  the  heart 
spontaneously.  If  the  politeness  which  men  show  to 
women,  and  for  which  American  men  are  famous, 
does  not  spring  from  their  own  sense  of  fitness,  if  it 
is  a  kind  of  barter,  a  reward  of  merit,  let  us  dispense 
with  it  altogether.  Sometimes  I  almost  fear  that  it 
is  so.  Sometimes  I  am  half  inclined  to  believe  that 
men  are  kind  and  courteous  chiefly  to  those  who 
are  independent  of  them.  In  a  railroad-car,  not 
long  since,  I  saw  a  woman,  hard-featured,  coarsQ- 
complexioned,  ignorant,  rude,  and  boisterous,  en- 
gaged in  an  altercation  with  the  conductor  regard- 
ing her  fare.  The  dozen  men  in  the  vicinity  leaned 
forward  or  looked  around  with  intent  eyes,  and  — 
must  I  say,  smiling  ?  no  —  grinning  faces,  and  sa- 
luted each  fresh  outburst  of  violence  with  laugh- 
ter. Could  a  true  courtesy  have  found  amusement, 
or  anything  but  pain,  in  such  an  exhibition  ?  The 
woman  was  most  unwomanly,  but  she  was  a  wo- 
man. That  should  be  enough,  on  your  principles. 
She  was  a  human  being.  That  is  enough,  on  minev 
In  "  Our  Old  Home,"  Hawthorne  — O  the  late 
sorrow  of  that  beloved  name  !  —  has  most  tenderly 
told  the  story  of  Delia  Bacon.  When  her  book  was 
published,  we  are  informed,  "  it  fell  with  a  dead 
thump  at  the  feet  of  the  public,  and  has  never  been 
picked  up.  A  few  persons  turned  over  one  or  two 
of  the  leaves,  as  it  lay  there,  and  essayed  to  kick 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  281 

the  volume  deeper  into  the  mud From  the 

scholars  and  critics  in  her  own  country,  indeed, 
Miss  Bacon  might  have  looked  for  a  worthier  ap- 
preciation." But,  "  If  any  American  ever  wrote 
a  word  in  her  behalf,  Miss  Bacon  never  knew 
it,  nor  did  I.  Our  journalists  at  once  repub- 
lishecl  some  of  the  most  brutal  vituperations  of 
the  English  press,  thus  pelting  their  poor  country- 
woman with  stolen  mud,  without  even  waiting  to 
know  whether  the  ignominy  was  deserved.  And 
they  never  have  known  it  to  this  day,  nor  ever 
will." 

Is  this  courtesy  ?  Is  this  the  lofty  manhood 
which  women  are  to  bow  down  and  worship  ?  To 
such  as  these  is  it  that  women  are  to  say,  "  What 
thou  bid'st,  unargued  I  obey  "  ?  Men  may  prom- 
ise all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  the  glory 
of  them,  and  women  may  make  never  so  persistent 
efforts  to  bow  down  and  enter  into  possession ;  but 
the  worship  will  neyer  be  heartsome,  nor  the  title 
ever  secure.  Never  will  the  human  mind,  whether 
of  man  or  woman,  rest  in  that  which  is  not  excel- 
lent. So  long  as  men  are  unworthy  of  fealty, 
they  may  forever  grasp,  but  they  cannot  retain  it. 
Their  empire  will  be  turbulent  and  their  claim  dis- 
puted. They  will  have  a  secure  hold  on  woman's 
respect  only  so  far  as  character  commands  it. 
Feudalism  was  better  than  barbarism,  and  the  nine- 
teenth is  an  advance  on  the  fifteenth  century. 
But  the  inmost  germ  of  chivalry  has  not  yet  flow- 


282  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

ered  into  perfect  blossom.  By  the  restiveness  of 
woman  under  the  tutelage  of  man  may  he  meas- 
ure his  own  short-comings.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  men  should  be  renowned,  but  they  should  be 
great.  Fame  is  a  matter  of  gifts,  but  character  is 
always  at  command.  Not  every  man  can  be  a 
philosopher,  poet,  or  president,  but  every  man  can 
be  gentle,  reverent,  unselfish,  upright,  magnani- 
mous, pure.  In  field  and  wood  and  prairie,  stand- 
ing behind  the  counter,  bending  over  lapstone  or 
anvil,  day-book,  ledger,  or  graver,  a  man  may 
fashion  himself  on  the  true  heroic  model,  and  so 

"  Move  onward,  leading  up  the  golden  year ; 
For  unto  him  who  works,  and  feels  he  works, 
The  same  grand  year  is  ever  at  the  doors." 

In  that  grand  year  courtesy  shall  be  recognized 
as  the  growth  of  the  soul  and  not  of  circumstance. 
A  man  shall  bear  himself  towards  a  woman,  not 
according  to  what  she  is,  but  to  what  himself  is. 
He  shall  dispense  the  kindnesses  of  travel,  assem- 
bly, and  all  manner  of  association,  not  only  to  the 
good  and  the  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward  ;  and 
he  will  do  it,  not  because  he  thinks  it  best  or 
right,  but  because  he  cannot  do  otherwise,  with- 
out working  inward  violence  upon  himself.  If  a 
woman  show  herself  rude  or  unthinking,  or  if  in 
any  way  she  transgresses  the  laws  of  taste,  pro- 
priety, or  morality,  he  shall  not,  therefore,  con- 
sider himself  at  liberty  to  utter  coarse  jests  or 
coarse  rebuke,  to  cast  free  looks,  or  disport  him- 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  283 

self  with  laughter.  It  shall  not  be  possible  for 
him  to  do  so ;  but  he  shall  rather  feel  in  his  own 
heart  the  thrill  and  in  his  own  blood  the  tingle  of 

o 

degradation,  and  gravely  and  sadly  will  he 

"  Pay  the  reverence  of  old  days 

To  her  dead  fame ; 
Walk  backward  with  averted  gaze, 
And  hide  the  shame/' 

Nor  shall  his  deference  be  confined  to  woman,  but 
man  to  man  shall  do  that  which  is  seemly.  For 
all  poverty,  loneliness,  helplessness,  repulsiveness, 
and  every  form  of  weakness  and  misfortune,  es- 
pecially for  those  worst  misfortunes  that  come 
from  one's  own  imprudence  or  misdoing,  he  shall 
have  sympathy  and  help.  Then,  indeed,  "  shall 
all  men's  good  be  each  man's  rule."  Then  be- 
tween man  and  woman  shall  be  no  mine  and 
thine,  but  Maud  Muller's  dream  shall  be  fulfilled, 
and  joy  is  duty  and  love  is  law. 

Much  of  our  classification  of  qualities  into  mas- 
culine and  feminine,  all  assignment  of  superiority 
or  inferiority  to  one  or  other  of  the  sexes,  seems  to 
me  to  be  founded  on  a  false  conception.*  No  vir- 

*  This  paragraph  was  written  with  a  partial  reference  to  Mrs. 
Farnham's  "  Woman  and  her  Era,"  of  which  book  I  had  at  the 
time  but  a  very  general  notion,  derived  from  one  or  two  news- 
paper notices.  Since  then  the  appearance  of  an  unclean  criti- 
cism in  the  "  Publishers'  Circular  "  induced  me  to  suspect  that 
the  book  must  embody  some  unusual  excellence,  or  it  could 
not  have  forced  a  fallen  soul  thus  to  foam  out  its  own  shame. 
From  such  a  brief  glance  as  I  have  been  able  to  give  to  "  Wo- 


284  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

tue,  scarcely  a  quality,  is  the  prerogative  of  man 
or  woman,  but  manly  and  womanly  together  make 
the  perfect  being.  A  man  who  has  not  in  his  soul 
the  essence  of  womanhood,  is  an  unmanly  man. 
A  woman  who  has  not  the  essence  of  manhood,  is 
an  unwomanly  woman.  It  is  woman  in  man,  — 
gentleness,  guilelessness,  truth,  permeating  strength 
and  valor,  that  gives  to  man  his  charm :  it  is  man 
in  woman,  —  courage,  firmness,  fibre,  underlying 
grace  and  beauty,  that  give  to  woman  her  fasci- 
nation. A  brutal  man,  a  weak  woman,  is  as  fa- 
tally defective  as  a  coward  or  an  Amazon.  God 
made  man  in  his  own  image;  God  made  man  male 
and  female.  God,  then,  is  in  himself  type  of  both 
male  and  female,  and  only  in  proportion  as  all  men 
are  womanly  and  all  women  manly,  does  each  be- 
come susceptible  of  the  love  and  worthy  of  the 
respect  of  the  other.  Neither  is  the  man  superior 
to  the  woman,  nor  the  woman  to  the  man,  but 
they  twain  are  one  flesh. 

man  and  her  Era,"  while  these  pages  are  going  through  the 
press,  I  infer  that,  a  little  hidden  from  common  eyes  under  a 
somewhat  appalling  mass  of  metaphysical  and  other  learning, 
are  collected  a  greater  numher  of  valuable,  timely  truths  than  I 
have  met  in  any  other  book  on  this  topic.  Not  agreeing  to  all 
her  opinions,  one  can  but  rejoice  in  the  sagacity  which  most  of 
them  display,  and  in  the  good  temper  and  just  spirit  which 
characterize  all. 


XIV. 


DOUBTLESS  there  are  many  men  who 
will  say :  To  what  purpose  is  all  this  ? 
What  new  development  has  arisen  to 
necessitate  a  new  outcry?  The  world 
is  getting  on  very  well.  People  marry  and  are 
given  in  marriage  ;  buy,  sell,  and  get  gain.  There 
is  a  good  deal  of  wickedness  and  suffering,  but 
less  of  both  than  formerly,  and  both  are  evidently 
diminishing.  Earth  is  not  heaven,  and  in  the 
world  we  shall  always  have  tribulation,  men  and 
women  both,  but  neither  men  nor  women  make 
any  particular  complaint,  and  on  the  whole  it  may 
reasonably  be  inferred  that  they  are  getting  on 
comfortably.  Pray  let  \vell  enough  alone. 

But  your  well  enough  cannot  be  let  alone,  be- 
cause it  is  not  well  enough.  Nothing  is  well 
enough  so  long  as  it  can  be  bettered.  The  world 
is  not  getting  on  comfortably,  however  comfortable 
you  may  be.  Mounted  in  your  car  of' Juggernaut, 
you  may  find  the  prospect  pleasing,  the  motion 
exhilarating,  and  the  journey  agreeable,  but  your 


286  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

lo  triumphe  has  but  a  discordant  twang  to  those 
whom  you  are  so  pleasantly  crushing  under  your 
chariot-wheels.  Your  vision  is  not  trustworthy. 
Through  I  know  not  what  process  a  judicial  blind- 
ness seems  to  come  upon  •  people,  so  that  those 
ways  seem  good  whose  end  is  death.  True,  the 
world  is  advancing,  but  with  a  motion  which,  com- 
pared with  that  which  it  might  attain,  is  retrogres- 
sion. Whose  fiat  has  decreed,  "  Thus  fast  shalt 
thou  go,  and  no  faster  "  ?  Why  is  it  that  we  only 
creep,  when  we  might  run  and  not  be  weary, 
might  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles  ?  Why  do 
we  dwell,  with  toil  and  tears,  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Shadow  of  Death,  when  the  voice  from  heaven 
centuries  ago  bade  us  come  up  higher  ?  We  have 
for  our  inheritance  the  elements  of  all  things  good 
and  great  and  to  be  desired ;  but  we  lack  the  clear 
vision  and  the  cunning  hand  to  construct  from 
them  the  Paradise  that  every  family  might  be,  in 
spite  of  the  sin  that  despoiled  the  first ;  so  we 
continue  to  dwell  without  Paradise,  and  very 
far  off.  Men  and  women  are  at  variance  with 
themselves  and  \vith  one  another.  Power  and 
passion  run  to  waste.  Positions  are  inverted, 
relations  confused,  and  light  obscured.  The  sanc- 
tuary of  the  Lord  is  built  up  with  untempered 
mortar,  and  jewels  of  gold  are  degraded  to  a 
swine's  snout. 

Underneath   all  wars  and   convulsions,  under- 
neath all  forms  of  government  and  all  social  insti- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  287 

tutions,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  relations  between 
man  and  woman  are  the  granite  formation  upon 
which  the  whole  world  rests.  Society  will  be 
elevated  only  just  so  fast  and  so  far  as  these  rela- 
tions become  what  God  intended  them  to  be. 
Monarchies,  republics,  democracies,  may  have  their 
benefits  and  their  partisans,  but  the  family  is  the 
foundation  of  country.  I  said  "it  seems  to  me" 
so.  I  have  been  charged  with  being  sometimes 
too  positive  in  my  opinions.  It  may  have  been  a 
youthful  fault,  but  I  long  since  corrected  it.  I 
should  now  suggest  rather  than  affirm  the  equality 
between  the  angles  of  a  triangle  and  two  right 
angles.  I  am  open  to  conviction  on  the  subject 
of  the  multiplication-table  ;  but  on  this  point  my 
feet  are  fixed,  and,  as  my  Puritan  ancestors  were 
wont  to  sing,  somewhat  nasally  perhaps,  but  with 
hand  on  sword,  — 

"  Let  mountains  from  their  seats  be  hurled 

Down  to  the  deep,  and  buried  there, 
Convulsions  shake  the  solid  world, 
My  faith  shall  never  yield  to  fear." 

All  other  influences  are  fitful  and  fragmentary : 
the  home  influence  alone  is  steady  and  sufficient, 
and  the  home  influence  depends  upon  the  relations 
between  father  and  mother.  Unless  there  is  on 
both  sides  respect  first,  and  then  love,  such  love  as 
brings  an  all-embracing  sympathy,  and  so  an  outer 
and  inner  harmony,  —  harmony  between  life  and 
its  laws  and  hanncny  between  heart  and  heart,  — 


288  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

the  child's  head  will  be  pillowed  upon  discord, 
his  cradle  will  be  rocked  by  restlessness,  and 
his  character  can  hardly  fail  to  be  unsymmetrical. 
We  have  all  seen  the  wickedness  of  man,  that 
it  is  great  in  the  earth ;  but  why  should  it  not 
be,  when  he  is  conceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in 
iniquity;  when  his  plastic  soul  is  moulded  amid 
jarring  elements,  and  the  voices  that  fall  upon 
his  infant  ear  —  voices  that  should  be  modulated 
only  to  tenderness  and  love,  and  all  the  sweet  and 
endearing  qualities  —  are  sharpened  by  coldness, 
embittered  by  disappointment,  shrill  through  un- 
remitting toil  and  rough  with  sordid  ambitions? 
I  only  wonder  that  children  Ved  up  in  such  uncon- 
genial homes  come  to  be  so  much  men  and  women 
as  they  are.  No  outbreak  of  treachery  or  turpitude 
astonishes  me,  when  I  remember  the  discordant  cir- 
cumstances into  the  midst  of  which  the  baby-soul 
was  born.  The  only  astonishment  is,  that  every 
soul  tends  so  strongly  towards  its  original  type  as  to 
have  even  an  outer  seeming'of  virtue.  I  wonder 
that,  when  the  twig  is  so  ruthlessly  and  persistently 
bent,  the  tree  should  reach  up  ever  so  crookedly 
towards  heaven.  Kind  Nature  takes  her  poor 
warped  little  ones,  and  with  gentle,  impercep- 
tible hand  touches  them  to  a  grace  and  soft- 
ness which  we  have  no  ri^ht  *to  expect,  but  to 
never  that  divine  grace,  that  ineffable  sweetness, 
of  which  the  human  soul  r  --apable,  and  to  which 
in  its  highest  moods  it  ever  yearns..  O,  if  this 


.4   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  289 

one  truth  could  be  imprinted  upon  this  age, — 
the  one  truth  that  the  regeneration  of  the  world  is 
to  come  through  love,  —  what  hope  could  one  not 
see  for  the  future  !  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  and  henceforth 
there  is  no  more  offering  for  sin.  It  only  remains 
for  us  to  enter  into  the  holiest-by  this  new  and 
living  way  which  he  hath  consecrated  for  us.  The 
offering  of  Divine  love  is  complete.  Let  human 
iove  come  in  to  do  its  part,  and  the  human  soul 
khall  be  sanctified  from  its  birth.  When  clamor 
and  wrath  and  evil-speaking  and  evil-feeling  are 
banished  from  the  household  hearth,  murder  and 
plunder  and  lust  will  fly  from  the  public  ways. 
When  the  child  -is  the  child  of  mutual  love  and 
trust  and  reverence  and  wisdom,  he  will  never 
belie  his  parentage. 

We  give  to  the  dead  their  honors,  —  meet  hom- 
age for  the  dust  that  shrined  a  soul.  All  passion 
is  hushed,  all  pettiness  vanishes  in  the  presence  of 
the  dread  mystery.  But  there  is  a  mystery  more 
dread,  a  mystery  to  which  death  is  but  as  the 
sunshine  for  clearness,  —  the  only  sunshine  which 
lights  up  its  hidden  labyrinths.  It  is  the  inexpli- 
cable secret  of  life.  Fear  not  before  the  power 
which  kills  the  body,  but  is  not  able  to  kill  the  soul. 
Stand  in  awe  before  that  Power  which  can  evoke 
both  soul  and  body  from  nothingness  into  everlast- 
ing life.  Death  does  but  mark  the  accomplishment 
of  one  stage  in  a  journey,  with  whose  inception  we 

13  S 


290  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

had  nothing  to  do.  It  is  but  a  necessary  change 
of  carriage  at  some  relay-house,  —  an  involuntary 
and  inevitable  event  in  which  we  are  but  interested 
spectators  or  passive  participants.  But  whether 
the  Spirit  shall  set  out  on  its  journey  at  all,  and 
what  shall  be  the  manner  of  its  going,  what  its 
sustenance  by  the  way,  and  what  the  light  upon 
its  path,  —  these  are  matters  for  concern  ;  for  these 
involve  the  weightiest  responsibilities  which  man 
can  bear.  To  fashion  an  infinite  soul  and  send  it 
forth  upon  an  infinite  career,  —  infinite  suscepti- 
bilities laid  open  to  the  touch  of  infinite  sorrow,  — 
oh !  to  him  who  has  ever  faced  the  facts  of  being, 
—  not  death,  not  death,  but  this  irrevocable  gift  of 
life,  is  the  one  solemnity,  the  awful  sacrament ! 

You  will  say  that  you  believe  all  this  now,  but 
you  do  not  believe  it.  You  agree  to  it  in  a  certain 
sentimental  Pickwickian  sense,  but  you  do  not 
hold  it  as  a  living  truth.  You  will  assent  to  all 
that  is  said  of  the  importance  of  the  family,  and 
then  go  straightway  and  give  your  chief  time, 
thought,  ingenuity,  to  your  farms  and  your  mer- 
chandi^e.  What  men  really  believe  in  is  making 
money,  not  making  true  men  and  women.  They 
believe  that  the  greatness  of  a  nation  consists  in  its 
much  land  and  gold  and  machinery  and  ability  to 
browbeat  another  nation,  not  in  the  incorrupti- 
bility of  its  citizens.  Wealth  and  fame,  purple  and 
fine  linen  and  sumptuous  fare,  brute  force  of  intel- 
lect, position,  and  power,  one  or  another  or  all 


A    NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  291 

forms  of  self-indulgence,  —  these,  not  purity,  love, 
content,  aspiration,  and  hearty  good- will,  they  take 
to  constitute  blessedness.  What  a  man  gives  his 
life  to,  what  he  will  attend  to  with  his  own  eyes 
and  mind,  and  will  not  trust  to  any  other  person, 
that  he  believes  in.  Any  amount  of  fulsome 
adulation  may  be  poured  out  upon  the  womanly 
in  nature,  but  one  particle  of  true  reverence,  one 
single  award  of  rightful  freedom,  is  worth  it  all. 
Surely,  if  you  could  but  see  how  the  land  is  as  the 
garden  of  Eden  before  you,  and  around  you  a  des- 
olate wilderness,  you  would  suffer  yourselves  to 
be  charmed  into  its  ways  of  pleasantness  and  its 
paths  of  peace.  You  do  not  know  the  beautiful 
capacities  which  this  earth,  this  very  sin-stained, 
death-struck  earth,  bears  in  its  redeemed  bosom. 
Where  sin  abounds  to  sorrow,  grace  may  much 
more  abound  to  peace.  Through  the  wonder  of 
the  Divine  redemption  there  is  possible  for  us  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  righteous- 
ness shall  dwell,  and  always  and  everywhere  right- 
eousness and  peace  kiss  each  other.  You  sing  the 
praises  of  woman,  but  you  do  not  begin  to  dream 
of  the  loveliness,  the  blessedness,  the  beneficence 
of  which  she  is  capable.  You  extol  her  in  song 
and  story,  but  with  your^life  you  will  not  suffer 
women  to  be  womanly.  You  are  so  evil,  and  you 
decree  so  much  evil,  that,  alas  !  a  woman  wakes  to 
conscious  life,  and  is  not  free  to  follow  the  bent  of 
her  nature ;  she  must  expend  all  her  energies  in 


292  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

clearing  a  breathing-space.  O,  you  do  a  fearful 
wrong  in  this,  and  you  endure  a  fearful  wrong. 
For  do  you  think  the  work  is  for  woman  alone  ? 
Do  you  think  there  is  any  such  thing  as  a  "  woman 
question  "  that  is  not  also  a  man  question  ?  Do 
you  not  know,  that 

"  Laws  of  changeless  justice  bind 

Oppressor  with  oppressed, 
And,  close  as  sin  and  suffering  joined, 
We  march  to  fate  abreast "  ? 

The  first  shock  of  penalty  for  transgression  falk 
upon  woman,  but  sure  and  swift  as  the  lightning 
it  passes  on  to  man.  Every  measure  that  keeps 
woman  down  keeps  man  down.  Every  jot  taken 
from  woman's  joy  is  so  much  taken  from  man. 
All  his  wrong-thinking  and  wrong-doing  that  bears 
so  heavily  upon  her  bears  down  upon  himself  with 
equal  weight.  Action  and  reaction  are  not  only 
inevitable,  but  constant.  Every  small  or  great  im- 
provement in  woman's  condition  elevates  society, 
and  society  is  only  men  and  women.  If  men  per- 
sist in  alternate  or  in  combined  scorn  and  flattery, 
and  will  not  do  justly,  the  sorrow  as  well  as  the 
shame  is  theirs,  and  both  are  instantaneous. 

We  are  told  of  the  Persian  bird  Juftak,  which 
has  only  one  wing.  /On" the  wingless  side  the  male 
has  a  hook  and  the  female  a  ring,  and  when 
fastened  together,  and  only  when  fastened  together, 
can  they  fly.V  The  human  race  is  that  Persian 
bird,  the  Juftak.  When  man  and  woman  unite, 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  293 

they  may  soar  skyward,  scorners  of  the  ground, 
but  so  long  as  man  refuses  God's  help  proffered  in 
woman,  he  and  she  must  alike  grub  on  the  earth. 
If  he  will  have  her  minister  only  to  the  wants  of 
his  lower  nature,  his  higher  nature  as  well  as  hera 
shall  be  forever  pinioned. 

You  may  possibly  suspect  that  I  have  some- 
fimes  insinuated  a  greater  moral  obliquity  on  the 
part  of  man  than  on  that  of  woman  ;  and,  indeed,  I 
believe  you  are  right.  But  the  greater  obliquity 
which  I  attribute  to  him  is  the  result  of  his  train- 
ing, not  an  attribute  of  his  nature.  I  once  held 
the  contrary  opinion,  but  it  is  not  tenable.  Man 
is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  one  part  of  God 
cannot  be  better  than  another.  If  men  were  not 
capable  of  being  nobler  than  their  ordinary  life 
exhibits  them,  I  should  think  this  war  an  especial 
providence  of  God  in  other  respects  than  are 
usually  mentioned.  But  look  at  the  developments 
which  this  very  war  has  made.  Is  fortitude  in 
pain,  as  many  have  asserted,  a  womanly  attribute  ? 
But  what  fortitude  under  pain  has  been  shown  by 
our  soldiers  on  the  battle-field  and  in  hospital ! 
Torn  with  ghastly  wounds,  tortured  with  thirst, 
weak  from  loss  of  blood  and  lack  of  food,  un tended 
and  unconsoled  ;  or  wasting  away  in  the  crowded 
hospital  week  after  week  and  month  after  month, 
longing  for  home  while  dying  for  country ;  or 
scarred,  maimed,  and  disabled  for  life  ;  yet  utter- 
ing no  word  of  complaint,  breathing  no  murmur 


294  A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

of  impatience,  making  a  sport  of  pain,  gratuful  for 
every  word  and  touch  and  look  and  thought  of 
tenderness,  when  a  nation's  tenderness  is  their  just 
due,  and  glad  all  through  that  they  have  been  able 
to  fight  for  the  beloved  land,  —  is  fortitude  indeed 
only  a  womanly  virtue  ?  Or  is  it  that  gentleness 
and  self-sacrifice  are  pure  womanly,  as  is  so  often 
maintained  ?  Look  through  the  same  battle-fields 
and  hospitals  ;  see  men  waiting  upon  men  with  the 
indescribable  gentleness  of  compassion  and  pure 
sympathy ;  see  them  risking  life  to  save  a  wounded 
comrade  ;  see  them  passing  day  and  night  from 
cot  to  cot,  to  bathe  the  fevered  brow,  to  moisten 
the  parched  lip,  to  soothe  the  restless  mind,  to  re- 
ceive the  last  message  of  love,  and  speed  the  part- 
ing soul.  See  the  wounded  man  bidding  the 
surgeon  pass  him  by  to  heal  the  sorer  hurts  of  his 
neighbor,  or  putting  the  canteen  from  his  own  lips 
to  the  paler  lips  beside  him,  till  you  shall  take 
every  soldier  to  be  a  Sidney.  Rough  men  they 
may  be  or  polished,  rudely  or  delicately  nurtured, 
trained  to  every  accomplishment  or  only  born 
into  the  world,  but  everywhere  you  shall  look  on 
such  high  heroic  gentleness  and  thoughtfulness 
and  patience  and  self-abnegation  as  make  the 
courage  of  onset  seem  in  comparison  but  a  low, 
brute  virtue.  O  blood-red  blossoms  of  war,  with 
your  heart  of  fire,  deeper  than  glow  and  crimson 
you  unfold  the  white  lilies  of  Christ ! 

Who  shall  show  us  any  good  that  cannot  be 


A    NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  205 

predicated  of  the  nature  which,  stunted  and  twisted 
from  the  beginning,  can  yet  bring  forth  such  heav- 
enly fruit  ?  If  God  can  work  in  man  so  to  will 
and  to  do,  is  it  for  woman  to  stand  aside  and  say, 
"  I  am  holier  than  thou  "  ? 

But  though  the  exigencies  of  war  make  more 
obvious  the  fine  possibilities  of  men,  it  does  not 
need  a  continent  in  deadly  strife  to  indicate  their 
existence.  There  are  sacred  hours  in  every  life 
when  that  which  is  of  the  earth  is  held  in  abey- 
ance and  celestial  influences  reign.  No  man, 
perhaps,  has  ever  lived  who  has  not  had  his  better 
moments,  —  moments  when  the  spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  turbid  waters  of  his  soul  and  brought 
light  out  of  darkness  and  beauty  from  chaos  : 
silent  moments  it  may  be,  and  solitary,  or  hallowed 
with  a  companionship  dearer  even  than  solitude  ; 
moments  when  helplessness,  loveliness,  innocence, 
or  suffering  thrilled  him  to  the  depths  with  pity 
and  tenderness,  with  indignation  or  with  adora- 
tion. Have  you  never  seen  the  sweetest  ties  ex- 
isting between  father  and  daughter,  or  brother  and 
younger  sister,  when  the  wife  has  been  removed 
by  death,  or,  through  some  fatal  fault,  is  no  mother 
to  her  child  ?  What  love,  what  devotion,  what 
watchful  care,  what  sympathy,  what  strength  of 
attachment !  The  little  unmothered  daughter  calls 
out  all  the  motherhood  in  the  great,  brawny  man, 
and  they  walk  hand  in  hand,  blest  with  a  great 
content.  "  'T  is  the  old  sweet  mythos,"  —  the 
infant  nourished  at  the  father's  breast. 


296  A   NEW  ATMOSP1ILRE. 

E very-day  occurrences  reveal  in  men  traits  of 
disinterestedness,  consideration,  all  Christian  virtues 
and  graces.  My  heart  misgives  me  when  I  think 
of  it  all,  —  their  loving-kindness,  their  forbearance, 
their  unstinted  service,  their  integrity  ;  and  of  the 
not  sufficiently  unfrequent  instances  in  which  wo- 
men, by  frotfulness,  folly,  or  selfishness,  irritate 
and  alienate  the  noble  heart  which  they  ought  to 
prize  above  rubies.  I  have  not  hitherto  made  a 
single  irrelevant  remark,  and  I  will  therefore  in 
dulge  in  the  luxury  of  one  now.  It  is  this  :  Con- 
sidering how  few  good  husbands  there  are  in  the 
world,  and  how  many  good  women  there  are  who 
would  have  been  to  them  a  crown  of  glory  and  a 
royal  diadem,  had  the  coronation  but  been  effected, 
but  who,  instead,  are  losing  all  their  pure  gems 
down  the  dark,  unfathomed  caves  of  some  bad 
man's  heart,  —  considering  this,  I  account  that 
woman  to  whom  has  been  allotted  a  good  husband, 
and  who  can  do  no  better  than  spoil  him  and  his 
happiness  by  her  own  misbehavior,  guilty,  if  not  of 
the  unpardonable  sin,  at  least  of  the  unpardonable 
stupidity.  If  it  were  relevant,  I  could  easily  make 
out  a  long  list  of  charges  against  women,  and 
of  excellences  to  be  set  down  to  the  credit  of 
men.  But  women  have  been  stoned  to  death,  or 
at  least  to  coma,  with  charges  already ;  and  when 
you  would  extricate  a  wagon  from  a  slough,  you 
put  your  shoulder  first  and  heaviest  to  the  wheel 
that  is  deepest  in  the  mud,  —  especially  if  the 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  297 

other  wheel  would  hardly  be  in  at  all,  unless 
this  one  had  pulled  it  in  !  I  can  understand  and 
have  great  consideration  towards  those  men  who, 
gentle,  faithful,  and  true  themselves,  possibly  dis- 
heartened by  long  companionship  with  a  capricious, 
tyrannical  woman,  should  fail  to  acquiesce  with 
any  heartiness  in  the  truth  of  the  views  which  I 
have  advanced.  Their  experience  is  of  long-suffer- 
ing men  and  long-afflicting  women,  and  they  can 
hardly  be  expected  to  entertain  with  enthusiasm  a 
statement  which  has  perhaps  no  bearing  upon  their 
position.  Still,  when  facts  meet  facts,  the  argument 
is  always  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  battalions.  It 
is  the  rule  that  generalizes,  exceptions  only  modify. 
There  is  another  circumstance  which  makes 
strongly  against  any  assertion  of  man's  necessary 
moral  inferiority  to  woman.  The  manly  ideal  is 
often  one  to  which  no  woman  takes  exception.  In 
poetry  and  romance,  men,  as  well  as  women,  paint 
heroes ;  and  I  hold  that  no  one  can  project  from 
his  imagination  a  better  character  than  he  is  him- 
self capable  of  attaining.  He  can  be,  all  that  he 
can  portray.  The  stream  through  his  pen  can  rise 
no  higher  than  the  fountain  in  his  heart,  and  out 
of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life  which  he  may 
keep  as  pure  and  clear  as  poesy.  It  was  no  wo- 
man's hand  which  limned  the  grand,  sad  face  of 
that  "  good  king,"  who 

"  Was  first  of  all  the  kings  who  drew 
The  knighthood-errant  of  this  realm  and  all 
The  realms  together  under  me,  their  Head, 
13* 


298  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

In  that  fair  order  of  my  Table  Round, 

A  glorious  company,  the  flower  of  men, 

To  serve  as  model  for  the  mighty  world, 

And  be  the  fair  beginning  of  a  time. 

I  made  them  lay  their  hands  in  mine  and  swear 

To  reverence  the  King,  as  if  he  were 

Their  conscience,  and  their  conscience  as  their  King, 

To  break  the  heathen  and  uphold  the  Christ, 

To  ride  abroad  redressing  human  wrongs, 

To  speak  no  slander,  no,  nor  listen  to  it, 

To  lead  sweet  lives  in  purest  chastity, 

To  love  one  maiden  only,  cleave  to  her, 

And  worship  her  by  years  of  noble  deeds, 

Until  they  won  her  ;  for  indeed  I  knew 

Of  no  more  subtle  master  under  heaven 

Than  is  the  maiden  passion  for  a  maid, 

Not  only  to  keep  down  the  base  in  man, 

But  teach  high  thought,  and  amiable  words 

And  courtliness,  and  the  desire  of  fame, 

And  love  of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a  man." 

Another  fact  must  also  be  allowed.  Individual 
men  are  often  better  than  their  principles.  Men 
who  will,  in  cold  blood,  avow  sentiments  really 
atrocious,  will,  in  the  presence  of  a  command- 
ing female  influence,  straighten  up  to  its  require- 
ments and  carry  themselves  tolerably  well ;  but 
with  their  lips  they  will  all  the  while  deny  the 
power  which  their  lives  obey.  Many  a  man  who 
rails  at  strong-minded  women,  female  education, 
and  petticoat  government,  who  professes  to  believe 
only  in  stocking-mending,  love,  and  cookery,  will 
be  utterly,  though  unconsciously,  plastic  to  the 
hand  of  a  truly  strong-minded,  educated,  and  con- 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  299 

trolling  woman.  He  does  not  know  it ;  power 
in  its  highest  action  works  ever  imperceptibly. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  there,  and  he  follows  it.  His 
wrong  opinions  help  to  strengthen  the  citadel  of 
evil,  but  himself  is  less  bad  than  he  seems.  This 
ought  to  be  remembered  when  inquisition  is  made. 
It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  evidence,  but  it  is 
not  necessary.  Enough  has  been  produced  to  show 
that  men  have  evinced  the  highest  not  only  of 
those  qualities  which  belong  to  their  own  sex,  but 
those  which  are  usually  considered  the  prerogative 
of  the  other.  And  what  men  have  done  man  may 
do.  Life  can  be  as  lovely  as  its  best  moods.  In 
vino  veritas,  said  Roman  philosophy,  and  builded 
better  than  it  knew.  In  the  wine  of  love  is  the 
truth  of  life.  As  pure,  as  thoughtful,  as  disinter- 
ested, as  helpful,  as  manly  as  is  the  lover  can  the 
husband  be.  What  the  poet  sings,  that  the  man 
should  live.  A  race  that  has  attained  a  temporary 
exaltation  can  attain  a  permanent  exaltation.  If 
one  man  has  bent  to  the  stern  decree  of  duty, 

knowing 

"All 

Life  needs  for  life  is  possible  to  will/' 
all  men  can  compass  self-control.     I  am  filled  with 
indignation  when  I  see  the  low  standard  accepted 
for  man's  due   measurement.     Well  may  he  ex-* 
claim,  in  sad,  despairing  reproach, — 

"  Men  have  burnt  my  house, 
Maligned  my  motives,  —  but  not  one,  I  swear, 
Has  wronged  my  soul  as  this  Aurora  has," 


.300  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

or  tins  Romney  or  Sir  Blaise,  who  forbids  me  ac- 
cess to  the  holy  place,  denies  me  power  to  lead  a 
saintly  life.  Why,  it  is  because  men  can  be  good 
that  we  reproach  them.  It  is  because  we  do  see 
in  them  hints  of  dormant  excellences  that  wTe  con- 
sider it  worth  while  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  agi- 
tation. If  they  must  be  as  bad  as  their  badnesses, 
there  is  only  one  verdict :  He  is  joined  to  idols  ; 
let  him  alone.  But,  beloved,  I  am  persuaded  bet- 
ter things  of  you,  and  things  that  accompany  sal- 
vation, though  I  thus  speak.  What  has  been  is  of 
no  fatal  import.  What  has  been  only  shows  the 
track  of  error ;  now  we  may  follow  the  footsteps 
of  truth.  The  old  world  is  a  world  masculinized; 
a  world,  of  rugged,  brawny,  male  muscularity,  but 
slightly  and  partially  softened  by  feminine  touch. 
Man  was  satisfied  that  woman  in  the  beginning 
should  be  taken  out  of  him,  and  he  has  ever  since 
been  trying  to  grope  his  way  alone,  —  with  what 
success  ages  of  blunder  and  blood  bear  terrible 
witness.  Now,  seeing  that  his  defeminization  has 
failed,  let  him  compass  the  spiritual  restoration  of 
her  who  was  physically  separated  from  him,  that 
the  twain  may  become  one  perfect  being,  and  re- 
assume  supreme  dominion.  The  power  lies  ready 
to  his  hand.  Eve  was  never  wholly  torn  away. 
Deep  within  every  heart  lies  the  slumbering  Prin- 
cess still.  A  hundred  years  and  many  another 
hundred  have  gone  by,  and  round  her  palace-wall, 
round  her  star-broidered  coverlet,  her  gold-fringed 


A   N-EW  ATMOSPHERE.  301 

pillow,  and  her  jet-black  hair,  the  hedge  has  wo- 
ven its  ivies  and  woodbine,  thorns  and  mistletoes. 
Burr  and  brake  and  brier,  close-matted,  seem  to 
refuse  approach,  and  even  to  deny  existence,  but 
ever  and  anon  above  their  surly  barricade  gleams 
in  some  evening  sun  the  topmost  palace  spires, 
and  we  know  that  the  fated  Fairy  Prince  shall 
come,  and,  guided  by  the  magic  music  in  his  heart, 
shall  find  that  quiet  chamber ;  reverently,  on 
bended  knee,  shall  touch  the  tranced  lips,  and  — 
lo !  thought  and  time  are  born  again,  and  it  is  a 
new  world  which  was  the  old. 

Men,  notwithstanding  their  high  privilege,  re- 
main in  their  low  estate,  —  partly  because  they 
are  not  enlightened  out  of  it.  They  do  evil,  not 
knowing  what  they  do.  Like  all  despots,  they 
have  dealt  more  in  adulation  than  in  truth.  They 
have  heard  from  women  the  voice  of  flattery,  the 
cry  of  entreaty,  the  wail  of  helpless  pain,  the  im- 
potent watchword  of  insurrection ;  but  they  have 
had  small  opportunity  to  benefit  by  the  careful 
analysis  of  character,  the  accurate  delineation  and 
just  rebuke  of  faults,  and  the  calm,  judicious,  af- 
fectionate counsel  which  comes  from  a  wise  and 
faithful  friend  —  like  me  !  Women  may  stand 
before  them,  sweet,  trusting  creatures,  "just  as 
high  as  their  hearts,"  to  be  schooled  into  devotion 
and  amiable  submission.  They  may  float  demi- 
goddesses  in  some  incomprehensible  ether  above 
the  clouds,  and  receive  incenso  and  adoration. 


302  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

But  for  the  ministering  angel  to  turn  into  an  accus- 
ing angel,  for  the  lectured  to  rise  and  lay  down 
the  law  to  lecturers,  is  a  thing  which  was  never 
dreamt  of  in  Horatio's  philosophy. 

"  A  man 

May  call  a  white-browed  girl  Dian, 

But  likes  not  to  be  turned  upon 

And  nicknamed  young  Endymion." 

Nor,  indeed,  is  it  any  more  grateful  to  Dian  than 
to  Endymion.  To  confront  man  on  his  throne 
with  the  stern,  dispassionate  charge,  "Thou  art 
inexcusable,  O  man,  whosoever  thou  art,  that 
judgest ;  for  wherein  thou  judgest  another,  thou 
condemnest  thyself;  and  thinkest  thou  this,  O 
man,  that  thou  shalt  escape  the  judgment  of 
God  ?  "  seems  to  woman  so  formidable  a  thing, 
that  very  few  have  had  the  courage  to  attempt  it. 
Many  are  so  overborne  with  toil,  disappointment, 
and  faintness,  that  they  have  no  heart  for  it.  It  is 
easier  to  suffer  than  to  attempt  remedy.  They 
feel,  in  the  lowest  depths  of  their  consciousness, 

"  What  all  their  weeping  will  not  let  them  say, 
And  yet  what  women  cannot  say  at  all 
But  weeping  bitterly." 

But  they  remain  silent,  and  the  case  goes  by  de- 
fault. There  is,  besides,  a  dread  of  personal  con- 
sequences. Popular  judgment  is  very  much  given 
to  attributing  general  statements  to  private  ex- 
perience. If  a  woman  is  married,  her  adverse 
opinions  are  likely  to  be  charged  with  implying 


A  NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  303 

conjugal  discontent.  If  she  is  not  married,  they 
spring  from  failure  and  envy,  and,  shrinking  from 
such  opprobrium,  the  few  women  who  see  talk 
the  matter  over  among  themselves,  and  that  is  the 
end  of  it.  There  is  also  a  natural  reluctance  to 
suggest  that  which  men  should  do  or  be  spontane* 
ously,  and  there  is  a  deeper  reluctance,  instinc- 
tive, indefinite,  inexplicable. 

The  result  is,  that  men  go  on  in  sin,  seemingly 
unconscious  that  it  is  sin.  They  have  been  pur- 
suing one  course  all  their  life,  meeting  obstacles, 
enduring  fatigue,  losing  patience,  but  incapable  of 
perceiving  that  they  are  in  the  wrong  path  until 
the  fact  is  pointed  out  to  them.  They  do  not  even 
understand  the  nomenclature  of  the  science  of  right 
living.  Speak  of  cherishing  a  departed  friend,  and 
they  will  descant  on  the  absurdity  of  going  about 
moaning  and  weeping  all  your  days.  They  attach 
no  meaning  to  life-long  tenderness  but  life-long 
namby-pamby  ism,  something  excusable  in  youth 
and  "  courting,"  but  savoring  strongly  of  weak- 
ness of  character  after  the  honeymoon  has  waned. 
Put  before  them  the  general  allegation  of  selfish- 
ness, indifference,  cruelty,  and  they  will  deny 
it  with  vehemence.  Of  course.  Without  such 
denial  they  could  have  no  excuse.  Moral  igno- 
rance alone  saves  them  from  utter  condemna- 
tion. If  they  sinned  wittingly,  —  if  they  said, 
u  Yes,  I  am  cold  and  hard  and  hateful  to  my 
wife,  neglectful  of  my  children,  I  give  grudg- 


.304  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

ingly  money  barely  sufficient  for  the  necessities 
of  life,  or  I  provide  for  my  wife  every  luxury, 
but  have  no  sympathy  or  companionship  for  her," 
—  if  men  said  or  could  say  this,  even  to  them- 
selves, they  would  be  —  not  men,  but  demons. 
They  are  not  demons,  but  men,  capable  of  gener- 
osity, devotion,  and  self-sacrifice.  If  they  knew 
that  they  were  cruel,  outrageous,  intolerable  in 
their  most  intimate  relations^  they  would  at  once 
cease  to  be  so,  and  begin  to  become  everything 
that  could  be  desired.  More  than  this,  I  have-  so 
great  faith  in  the  noble  possibilities  of  men?  I 
believe  they  have  so  strong  an  inward  bias  towards 
holiness,  that  they  will  welcome  the  friendly  hand 
which  sets  their  iniquities  before  them.  They  will 
hear  the  sad  story  with  amazement,  and  say  one  to 
another  :'  "  Who  can  understand  his  errors  ?  A 
brutish  man  knoweth  not ;  neither  doth  a  fool  un- 
derstand this.  We  have 'sinned  with  our  fathers, 
we  have  committed  iniquity,  we  have  done  wick- 
edly. So  foolish  was  I  and  ignorant ;  I  was  as  a 
beast.  But  now  I  will  behave  myself  wisely  in  a 
perfect  way.  I  will  walk  within  my  house  with  a 
perfect  heart."  And,  when  men  shall  have  grown 
'  good,  there  will  be  no  further  complaint  of  women. 
To  Lavater's  list  of  impossible  good  women,  Blake, 
the  "  mad  painter,"  appends,  "  Let  the  men  do 
their  duty,  and  the  women  will  be  such  wonders  : 
the  female  life  lives  from  the  life  of  the  male." 
There  are  exceptions,  but  in  the  mass  women  are 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE.  305 

not  independent  of  received  opinions,  nor  strong 
enough  to  front  prejudice  and  mould  society,  or 
where  they  cannot  mould  it,  to  guide  their  own 
lives  in  its  very  spite.  Therefore  opinion  needs 
to  be  right,  prejudice  removed,  and  society  reno- 
vated ;  and  men  must  do  it.  Women  are  generally 
said  to  make  society.  It  is  not  so.  Men  make 
women,  and  men  and  wromen  together  make  soci- 
ety. Men  are  the  rocky  stratum,  women  the  soil 
which  covers  it.  Men  determine  the  outline,  the 
level,  the  general  character  ;  women  give  the 
curves,  the  bloom,  the  grace.  Rear  your  hills 
and  lay  your  valleys,  and  the  land  shall  speedily 
flow  with  milk  and  honey  ;  but  if  you  will  upheave 
mountains  and  spread  deserts,  you  may  expect 
scant  herbage  on  the  one  and  but  scattered  oases 

o 

on  the  other. 

I  cannot,  of  course,  pronounce  that  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  woman  to  attain  a  truer  life  without 
man's  co-operation.  The  Most  High  ruleth  in  the 
kingdom  of  men  and  Hveth  it  to  whomsoever  he 

o  o 

will.  What  revolution  may  await  us  in  the  future 
no  one  knows.  Fired  by  what  impulse  woman 
may  throw  off  the  stupor  which  lias  enthralled  her 
so  long,  array  herself  in  her  beautiful  garments 
and  mount  upward  to  the  heavenly  heights,  whose 
air  alone  her  spirit  pants  to  breathe,  whose  paths 
alone  her  feet  are  framed  to  tread,  I  do  not 
know.  Yet  blessed  as  is  that  day,  come  when  and 
b"T  it  will,  I  would  it  were  ushered  in  by  a  peace- 


306  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

ful  dawn.  Better  that  woman  should  take  her 
place  alone,  moved  by  an  ineffable  disdain,  than 
that  she  should  remain  forever  in  her  low  estate. 
Better  still  that  man  and  woman  should  go  to- 
gether, he  bringing  his  sturdy  strength  to  shorten, 
she  lending  her  manifold  grace  to  lighten,  the  path 
that  leads  up  thither ;  and  both,  following  the  still, 
small  voice  of  love,  shall  find  no  roughness,  shall 
feel  no  grief,  shall  fear  no  evil,  but  shall  walk 
softly  till  the  end  come,  and  shall  rest  in  the  peace 
of  the  beloved. " 


L'ENVOI. 


SWEET  my  friend,,  hastening  with 
happy  steps  to  your  marriage-morn, 
O  my  poet,  singing  under  your  haw- 
thorn-tree the  song  that  never  can 
grow  old,  am  I  then  a  bird  of  evil  omen  ?  Does 
it  thunder  towards  the  left  as  I, pass  by?  Be  not 
so  credulous.  I  take  no  lustre  from  the  golden- 
bright  day  that  lies  half-hidden  under  the  mild 
haze  of  September:  but  I  would  that  fair  day's 
light  should  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment for  ever  and  ever.  I  breathe  no  blight  upon 
the  hawthorn,  no  discord  to  the  song ;  but  I 
would  the  bloom  of  the  one  and  the  melody  of 
the  other  might  never  die  away.  Dream,  O  maid- 
en !  your  pleasant  dreams  ;  sing,  O  poet !  your 
happy  songs  ;  but  while  the  flush  of  the  sunrise 
is  yet  ruddy  on  your  brows,  think  it  not  strange 
that  I  leave  your  sweet  light  and  go  down  to 
them  who  are  sitting  in  the  region  and  shadow 
of  death. 

Have  I  written  this  book  ? 


It  is  but  the  voice 


308  A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 

of  a  thousand  aching  hearts.  Ten  thousand 
dreary  lives  are  wrought  into  its  pages.  It  is 
the  sorrow  of  just  such  hearts  as  yours,  the  dis- 
appointment of  just  such  hopes,  that  have  found 
a  record  here.  The  gloom  that  gathers  on  these 
loaves  is  gloom  that  hangs  over  paths  just  as  fair 
as  yours  in  their  glad  beginning.  I  feast  my  eyes 
on  the  beautiful  temple  of  your  promise,  and  I 
pray  that  you  may  go  no  more  out  of  it  forever-, 
but  I  cannot  forget  that  all  my  life  I  have  seen 
highway  and  byway  strewn  with  the  fragments  of 
temples  which  in  their  majesty  of  completeness 
must  have  been  just  as  marvellous  as  yours.  And 
being  fully  persuaded  in  my  own  mind  that  there  is 
a* way  whereby  the  wondrous  edifice  may  be  made 
as  enduring  as  it  is  brilliant,  shall  I  not  proclaim 
it  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof,  that  the  trumpet  of  the  jubilee  may  sound? 
You  shall  not  make  the  darkness  your  pavilion, 
because  the  world  is  hung  with  gloom ;  but 
neither  shall  you  reckon  it  offence,  if  I  cannot 
wholly  rejoice  in  your  light  for  thinking  of  the 
great  multitudes  who  are  sitting  in  a  darkness 
which  may  be  felt.  To-day  is  lost,  but  it  is  not 
too  late  for  the  morrow.  Wasted  life  can  never 
be  restored  ;  — 

"  Though  every  summer  green  the  plain, 
This  harvest  cannot  bloom  again." 

Only  beyond  the  grave  can  a  new  life  spring  into 
beauty,  and  the  death  of  this  be  swallowed  up  in 


A   NEW  ATMOSrilKKl-:.  309 

victory.  But  for  the  lives  that  have  not  yet  been 
lavished,  for  the  u  poor  little  maidens"  of  great- 
hearted Dr.  Luther,  for  gentle  Magdalenchen, 
fiery  young  Lenore,  merry  Beatrice,  skij)j)ing  alnui* 
their  separate  paths,  each  to  her  unknown  wo- 
manhood, or  walking  already  through  its  shadowy 
ways, — how  earnestly  for  them  do  we  covet  the 
best  gift !  But  if  they  fail  of  this,  shall  not  one 
she  *v  them  how  to  live  worthily  without  it?  Shall 
nci:  one  bid  them  see  how  poor  and  false  and  mean 
is  everything  which  offers  itself  instead;  how  sad 
were  the  exchange  of  an  ideal  good  for  a  base  re- 
ality; how  fatal  the  disaster  when  the  sacred  torch 
pales  before  a  grosser  flame  ?  So  through  these 
summer  days,  my  little  maid,  when  all  swreet 
summer  sounds  but  echo  to  you  the  music  of  one 
low  voice,  add  to  the  happy  thought  within  your 
heart  this  happiest  thought  of  all :  There  shall 
come  a  day  when  the  same  sky  that  bends  in 
blessing  above  your  head  shall  bend,  —  no  cloud 
to  darken,  but  only  to  adorn,  no  fogs  to  hide,  but 
only  mist-wreaths  to  deck  its  blue,  —  soft,  serene, 
and  beautiful,  above  an  earth  purified  by  the  same 
iove  which  makes  to  you  all  things  pure.  Through 
that  new  atmosphere,  my  poet,  the  tuneful  voices 
of  your  song  shall  go,  wakening  all  the  woods 
to  melody,  summoning  shy  response  from  the 
ever-charmed  hills,  ringing  out  over  the  listening 
waters,  giving  and  gathering  sweetness  wherever 
a  human  heart  throbs  ;  till  earth,  all  a-quiver  with 


310 


A   NEW  ATMOSPHERE. 


the  harmony,  shall  lift  from  the  dust  her  long- 
neglected  lyre,  sweep  once  more  to  her  place 
among  the  stars,  and  raise  again  her  happy  voice 
in  the  unforgotten  music  of  the  spheres. 


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